NIA brings J&K separatist Bhat to Delhi for questioning

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has brought separatist leader and alleged ringleader of stone pelting in Jammu and Kashmir, Masrat Alam Bhat, from a state prison to Delhi to question him in connection with a terror funding case.

Bhat is the second separatist leader after Yasin Malik to be brought by the NIA here in connection with the case.

Bhat was shifted to Delhi's Tihar jail on Monday by a team comprising of the NIA and the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

NIA is to produce Bhat before a special court here to seek his custody for interrogation in connection with the terror funding case which the agency registered in May 2017 after violence erupted in the Kashmir Valley.

So far, the agency has arrested several separatist leaders, including Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah.

Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of Syed Ali Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan.

Shahid-ul-Islam is Dar's aide and Khandey is the spokesperson for the Geelani-led Hurriyat. Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali was arrested in August 2017.

The anti-terror agency, on January 18, 2018, filed a charge sheet against 12 persons, including Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin in connection with the terror funding case.

--IANS

rak/bc