Srinagar, Apr 24: National Investigation Agency( NIA) on Monday attached two properties of sons of designated terrorist Syed Mohammed Yusuf Shah @ Syed Salahudeen, self-styled Supreme Commander of Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen (HM) and Chairman of United Jihad Council (UJC) in Soibugh Budgam and Rambagh Srinagar areas of central Kashmir.
On Monday morning, the NIA sleuths along with teams of security forces attached the immovable property of Shakeel at Rambagh and placed a notice outside it.
In August 2018, the NIA arrested Shakeel, who was working as a lab technician at J&K’s premier health institution, Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, for over two decades.
The NIA accused him of being a “listed terrorist”.He is the second son of Salahudin who has been arrested by the NIA. In 2017, the probe agency arrested Syed Shahid in a money-laundering case. Shahid is lodged in Tihar jail, Delhi.
In August 2022, the J&K Administration dismissed Salahudin’s third son Syed Abdul Mueed, Manager, IT, Jammu Kashmir Entrepreneur Development Institute (JKEDI), from service for allegedly being involved in “anti-national elements”.
Mueed has been found to have a role in “three terror attacks on JKEDI complex at Sempora in Pampore and his presence in the Institution has increased sympathy with the secessionist forces.
The NIA spokesman said that the immovable properties of Shahid Yusuf and Syed Ahmed Shakeel, located in Kashmir – in Soibugh Tehsil in central Kashmir’s Budgam district and Nursing Garh, Mohalla Ram Bagh, have been attached under section 33(1) of UA( P) Act.
He said that both Shahid Yusuf and Syed Ahmed Shakeel are lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail since their arrest in October 2017 and August 2018 respectively. They were chargesheeted on April 20, 2018 and November 20, 2018, respectively. The duo had been receiving funds from abroad from the associates of their father and overground workers of HM.
Syed Salahudeen, who had fled to Pakistan in 1993, was designated as an individual terrorist by India in October 2020. He continues to operate from Pakistan, from where he is guiding and instructing HUM cadres as well as activists of UJC, also known as Muttahida Jihad Council (MJC) which is a conglomerate of around 13 Pakistan-based Kashmir centric Terrorist outfits, he said.
“Besides instigating and operationalising terror activities in India, primarily in Kashmir valley, Syed Salahudeen has been raising funds and routing finances to India through trade routes, Hawala channels, and international money transfer channels for furthering the militant activities of HM cadres,”he said.
The NIA launched investigations in November 2011 into the criminal conspiracy to provide funds to commit terror acts and distribute funds among the militant groups and their sympathizers in Jammu and Kashmir for the purpose of committing terror acts.
“The Special Cell of Delhi Police had initially registered a case in January 2011 and the case was subsequently taken over by NIA. Chargesheets as well as Supplementary Chargesheets were filed against eight accused in the case, including in 2011 and 2018,” he said.
The spokesman said NIA has been cracking down on militant funding machinery in a bid to dismantle the militant financing ecosystem operating in Jammu and Kashmir with the help of individuals based in Pakistan and other countries.
On Monday itself, the agency had also seized six shops in Awantipora in a case relating to a 2018 attack on CRPF Group Centre at Lethpora, J&K.
Some land, including a house, belonging to the father of one of the accused was also attached in the same case in September 2020.
In 2021, NIA had attached residential properties belonging to the kin of two accused in the case of the militant attack on CRPF Convoy at Lethpora, Pulwama. Another residential property has also been attached by NIA in the case relating to the killing of two brothers (Anil Parihar and Ajit Parihar), he said.
Earlier this year, NIA attached properties of slain Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) terrorist Bashir Ahmed Peer alias Imtiyaz Alam who was shot dead in Rawalpindi on February 21.
This year NIA has also seized properties of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen terrorist commander BasitReshi’s in Sopore and Mushtaq Zargar @ Latram, the founder and Chief Commander of Al-Umar Mujahideen in Srinagar.
