NIA raids separatist leader's home in J&K

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday raided the residence of senior separatist leader and Shia cleric, Syed Agha Hassan in Jammu and Kashmir's Badgam district.

Sources said the NIA sleuths assisted by the police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) raided Hassan's home and carried out searches.

On Wednesday, the agency had raided 24 places in the Kashmir Valley and in Delhi focusing mainly on traders, who allegedly have links with the terror funding case presently under probe by the NIA.

Three senior separatist leaders, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Yasin Malik have announced they would takeout a protest march to the NIA headquarters in New Delhi and court arrest on September 9.

The agency had in July arrested seven separatist leaders and a prominent local businessman in connection with the probe into the terror funding by Pakistan-based terrorist groups to stoke unrest in the valley.

President of Kashmir Bar Association Mian Qayoom was questioned by the NIA for nearly seven hours on Wednesday.

Lawyers in the valley have decided to stay away from courts till Qayoom returned from Delhi.

--IANS

sq/in