NIA gets 10-day custody of Shah, Bhat, Andrabi

A Delhi court on Tuesday allowed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to question Kashmiri separatist leaders Shabir Shah, Masrat Alam Bhat and Asiya Andrabi till June 14 in connection with a terror funding case.

Additional Sessions Judge Rakesh Syal sent the three to 10-day NIA custody. Masrat Alam Bhat was brought to Delhi from a prison in Jammu and Kashmir.

Their custody was sought for interrogation in connection with a 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 hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan.

Shahid-ul-Islam is Farooq 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 NIA had on January 18, 2018 filed a chargesheet against 12 persons including Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin in connection with the terror funding case.

--IANS

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