REGIONAL

Day after court order, NIA attaches Hurriyat office in Kashmir

By News Desk

January 29, 2023

The National Investigation Agency sealed the Hurriyat office in Srinagar on Sunday, a day after the NIA Court ordered the attachment of the Hurriyat office, Srinagar in a case related to militancy funding activities in Jammu Kashmir.

Official source told The Kashmiriyat that NIA officials on Sunday morning reached the office of Hurriyat in Srinagar’s Rajbagh and seized the separatist organization’s office.

They placed boards and locks over the office stating that the office was seized in a case dating back to 2017 in the case RC 10/2017/ NIA/DLI.

On Saturday, Additional Session Judge Shailender Malik ordered to attach the All Parties Hurriyat Conference headquarters at Raj Bagh, Srinagar.

The court order in the matter reads, “The evidence collected during the investigation of the NIA has been duly examined at the stage of charge predecessor of this court concluded to frame charges for different offenses against A-5 (Nayeem Khan) as mentioned above as well as against other accused persons.”

The court further observed that “it was also the case that the office of APHC was the place where meetings were held to strategize protest and funding activities and create unrest in the erstwhile state of Jammu Kashmir.”

In 2017, the National Investigating Agency arrested various Hurriyat leaders from both factions of the Hurriyat conference who were accused of money laundering and militancy funding, a charge Hurriyat has denied.

 

NIA told court that the property is partly owned by Khan along with his associates.

 

The office situated at Rajbagh was used to strategize different protests, stone pelting on Government forces, recruitment of ‘unemployed’ youth to carry out ‘unlawful’ activities as well as terrorist activities, to create unrest in Jammu Kashmir and to wage war against the union of India, NIA had told the court.

 

All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) is an alliance of 26 political, social, and religious organizations formed on 9 March 1993.