Mirwaiz Umar Farooq not to attend NIA questioning in Delhi over alleged terror funding

Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq will not be appearing in person before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for questioning over alleged terror funding case. Umar, however, will be submitting a written statement to the NIA in response to the summons. The NIA on Saturday had asked him to “report” for “examination” on March 11 at 10.30 am at its New Delhi headquarters. The NIA had on February 26 carried out searches at premises of separatist leaders, including the Mirwaiz, in connection with the case related to the financing of terrorist and separatist groups in Jammu and Kashmir.

The NIA team, accompanied by police and CRPF personnel, searched residences of some of the separatist leaders, including the Mirwaiz, Naseem Geelani and Ashraf Sehrai, the chairman of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat.

The houses of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Yaseen Malik, Shabir Shah, Zaffar Bhat and Masarat Alam were also raided. Barring the Mirwaiz and Sehrai, all other leaders were jailed for some time.

The NIA had questioned two maternal uncles of the Mirwaiz - Maulvi Manzoor and Maulvi Shafat - and his close aides last year. Both Manzoor and Shafat are retired senior government officers.

The NIA probe seeks to identify the chain of players behind the financing of terrorist activities, pelting of stones on security forces, burning down of schools and damaging of government establishments.

The case names Hafeez Saeed, Pakistan-based chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), the front for banned Lashker-e-Taiba, as an accused, besides organisations such as the Hurriyat Conference factions led by Geelani and the Mirwaiz, Hizbul Mujahideen and Dukhtaran-e-Millat.