Son of Hizb chief sent to judicial custody by Delhi court

A Delhi court today sent the second son of Syed Salahuddin, the chief of the banned Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, to judicial custody in connection with a 2011 terror funding case for allegedly receiving money from his father.

District Judge Poonam A Bamba sent 48-year-old Syed Ahmed Shakeel to custody after he was produced before it on expiry of his NIA custody granted earlier.

The second son of Salahuddin, a globally-wanted terrorist, was arrested on August 30 by the NIA in connection with the terror funding case.

The NIA officials, accompanied by the state police and CRPF, had arrested Shakeel at the Rambagh locality in Srinagar when he was on his way to the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science, where he works as a senior laboratory assistant.

He was then brought to the national capital and produced before the court.

Shakeel is the eldest son of Salahuddin who has been arrested by the NIA in connection with the case. Earlier this year, his other son, Shahid, who was working in the agricultural department of the Jammu and Kashmir government, was also arrested in the same case.

The probe agency had claimed that during its investigation, the involvement of Shakeel had surfaced in raising, receiving and collecting funds from the operatives of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, including those from Saudi Arabia.

It had also claimed that Shakeel had received money through the American financial services, Western Union, several times, which were sent by absconding but chargesheeted accused Aijaz Ahmad Bhat alias Aijaz Maqbool Bhat.

The case, registered by the NIA in April 2011, relates to the money transfers from Pakistan to Jammu and Kashmir through hawala channels via Delhi, which the agency claims was used in funding terrorism and secessionist activities.

The NIA has so far filed two charge sheets against six people including G M Bhat, a close aide of pro-Pakistan separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mohammed Siddiq Ganai, Ghulam Jeelani Liloo and Farooq Ahmed Dagga. All four are in judicial custody.

Two others -- Mohammed Maqbool Pandit and Bhat -- were also charge sheeted by the NIA but they are absconding and an Interpol Red Corner notice has been issued against them.

In this case so far, three accused persons Mohammad Sidiq Ganai, Ghulam Jeelani Liloo and Farooq Ahmed Dagga have been convicted after they pleaded guilty.

Syed Salahuddin, originally Mohammed Yusuf Shah, was declared a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Department of State. Besides heading terror outfit Hizb-ul Mujahideen, he is the chairman of the United Jehad Council (UJC), a conglomerate of terrorist outfits operating in the Kashmir Valley.