NIA to probe Hurriyat leaders for using LeT money to fund unrest in Valley

India Today TV claims Pakistan is creating trouble in the valley in connivance with Hurriyat leaders

The NIA has filed a case against separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and other Hurriyat leaders for allegedly receiving money from the Lashkar-e-Taiba to fund "subversive" activities in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

The National Investigation Agency said on Friday that a team of the counter-terror probe agency has landed in Srinagar and would question Geelani, Hurriyat provincial president Naeem Khan, JKLF leader Farooq Ahmed Dar also known as Bitta Karate and Tehreek-e-Hurriyat leader Gazi Javed Baba.

"The NIA has registered a preliminary enquiry into the funding of (the) Hurriyat leaders by LeT chief Hafiz Muhammed Saeed and other Pakistan-based terrorists and agencies to carry out subversive activities in Kashmir," the probe agency said.

It alleged the Hurriyat Conference was funding trouble in the Kashmir Valley and sponsoring stone pelting on security forces, burning of schools and other government establishments using the money they get from Pakistan.

An NIA official told IANS: "The team will soon call the Hurriyat leaders for questioning."

The move comes after an expose by a national news channel, India Today, purportedly showing Pakistan pumping money to stoke trouble in the valley in connivance with Hurriyat leaders.

The NIA official said a notice has been sent to India Today for the videos of the sting.

India Today news channel aired a sting on May 16 in which the Hurriyat leaders were allegedly seen in conversation with the reporter and confessing that they received money from Pakistan-based organisations routed through Hawala.