Hawala Funding Case: Unfazed, Separatists Dismiss NIA Chargesheet

Charge sheet filed by NIA sparks outrage among separatist leaders who are raising several questions at the probe.

(Photo: Lijumol Joseph/ The Quint)

The National Investigation Agency’s first chargesheet in the infamous Kashmir hawala funding case has apparently failed to have made a psychological impact across the Valley.

Minutes after the agency filed a voluminous chargesheet, containing over 12,000 pages of annexures, in a designated court in New Delhi on Thursday, 18 January, three of the Valley’s top separatist leaders – Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik – dismissed it as “a bunch of lies,” responding with more aggression and belligerence.

Hurriyat Questions the Chargesheet

Geelani delivered a lengthy statement via the telephone at a press conference held at Mirwaiz Umar’s place. He called for complete shutdown in Kashmir on 26 January.

None of those lodged at Tihar and arrested by the NIA have any criminal records. They have nothing to do with the funding case.

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Hurriyat leader

Geelani demanded the release of all the Kashmiris who had been arrested and lodged at Delhi’s Tihar jail on charges of receiving funds from Pakistan and Islamabad’s High Commission in New Delhi for organising violent demonstrations and arson after Burhan Wani’s killing in an encounter in July 2016 and for “waging war” against India.

Mirwaiz directed much of his reproach to army chief Bipin Rawat, but didn’t spare the NIA either. Alleging that the agency’s investigation was nothing but an attempt to intimidate and blackmail the separatist leadership and thus force it to “surrender,” Mirwaiz pointed out that the lower-rung activists had been named in the chargesheet but it had been “kept open” to include more.

According to him, it was a political tactic “to mount pressure on the resistance leadership” rather than a genuine, professional investigation.

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Yasin Malik ridiculed the NIA’s investigation and chargesheet.

If supporting an agitation in 2016 is the basis for NIA’s chargesheet, then the FIR and the challan should have been against the three of us (Geelani, Mirwaiz and Malik). Why have others been dragged into it? Most of them were already in jail in 2016.

Yasin Malik, chairman, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front

He alleged that over a dozen “innocent” separatist leaders and political activists had been “kidnapped” and wrongfully detained, as the NIA had “no concrete evidence against them.”

After the NIA grilled Geelani’s two sons, the probe agency held the Joint Resistance Leadership responsible for street turbulences and hartals across the Valley. Significantly, the NIA has neither summoned nor arrested any of the top-rung leaders, including Geelani, Mirwaiz and Umar.

BJP Can’t Afford Political Risks

Detractors of the Bharatiya Janata Party-Peoples Democratic Party coalition have been insisting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not like the NIA to cross a particular line as it could create problems for Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and the alliance in the state.

In its first chargesheet, as part of the FIR filed in May 2016, the NIA had named Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen head Salahuddin, both based in Pakistan.

Despite the NIA’s claim that the funding network was associated with Pakistan and its High Commission in New Delhi, none of the officials of the Government of Pakistan or the High Commission staff had been bracketed along with the accused.

Quoting anonymous officials, some national newspapers reported that four persons booked previously in a related case have been enlisted as witnesses, and one of them had turned into an approver.

Who Are the ‘Suspects’?

Of the scores of “suspects” who were grilled for hours and whose residences were subjected to day-long searches from July to September last year, few have been named in the chargesheet. These include seven separatist activists.

Six of them – Altaf Shah alias Fantoosh (Geelani’s son-in-law), Mohammad Akbar Khanday alias Ayaz Akbar (spokesman and public relations in-charge), Merajuddin Kalwal, Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Pir Saifullah; Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, and Nayeem Khan – belong to Geelani’s faction of the Hurriyat Conference.

Aftab Hilali Shah, former “chief commander” of the Hizbullah who has been enjoying Jammu and Kashmir Police protection after joining Mirwaiz as his press and public relations in-charge, is the lone accused from the Hurriyat faction led by Mirwaiz.

Zahoor Ahmad Shah alias Watali is the only businessman in the list among dozens of traders and businessmen whose premises were searched last year.

Of the remaining two, Kamran Yousuf is a Pulwama-based photojournalist and Javed Ahmad Bhat is a “stone pelter” from south Kashmir. According to the NIA’s own statement, as many as 60 locations were raided and 950 incriminating documents, including hundreds of pen drives, DVDs, and laptops, were seized.

Influential Patrons Have Been Spared

However, the NIA operation suffers from credibility deficit due to the fact that none of the characters, now enjoying positions of influence in the government and proximity to top BJP leaders, have been called, questioned, booked or arrested. The media has raised fingers on those politicians and businessmen known for their “cross-connections” and hawala funding management for different separatist and militant groups for the last 20 years.

“Watali was just used as a horse for the ride. The real operators are now enjoying power as part of the government,” said a senior politician, wishing anonymity. He said that even in 2002, when Farooq Abdullah had led a crackdown on this brand of businessmen, all of them were released under pressure from New Delhi within 48 hours.

“Some highly-influential politicians of the state government are even today known as patrons and silent partners of the cross-LoC traders involved in hawala funding and under-invoicing of goods. Who has the guts to question them,” said the same leader while referring to NIA’s own statements regarding terror funding operations through barter trade across the Line of Control.

(The writer is a Srinagar-based journalist. He can be reached @ahmedalifayyaz. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)

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