Mirwaiz Umar Farooq arrives in New Delhi, to be questioned by NIA in connection with J&K terror financing case

Kashmiri Separatist leader and Hurriyat (M) chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq arrived in New Delhi on Monday to appear before the National Investigation Agency(NIA) in connection with Jammu and Kashmir terror financing case.

He was issued summons on Sunday in connection with terror financing case. This is the third summons issued by the investigative agency to Mirwaiz in a year.

However, despite repeated summons by the investigating agency, Mirwaiz had expressed his inability to join the investigation in Delhi fearing for his security in view of "conditions of hostility" several times.

"Under the prevailing conditions of hostility wherein there is a threat to the personal safety of my client, it becomes unwise for my client to travel to Delhi," counsel for Mirwaiz, Aijaz Ahmad Dhar, had said in a letter to the investigative agency.

The letter further added: "If the NIA wants to question the Mirwaiz, it can do so in Srinagar and he is willing to cooperate as "he has nothing to hide"

READ| NIA Issues Third Summon To Separatist Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Likely To Be Interrogated In Delhi

A three-member NIA team headed by Investigating Officer Arvind Negi will question Mirwaiz Umar Farooq regarding the seizures made by the investigative agency in the raids carried out earlier in February, and the people he communicated with.

Earlier in May 2017, while carrying out the raids, NIA had found a letter which stated that Rs 5,000 were paid to a LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) operative. Mirwaiz's close aide Shahid-Ul-Islam had allegedly given the money to the LeT operative on Mirwaiz's orders, as per sources. Mirwaiz will be also be questioned on the same on Monday.

Earlier in February, the NIA carried out searches at premises of multiple separatist leaders, including Mirwaiz, in connection with the case related to alleged militancy funding in Jammu and Kashmir. In the raids, highly advanced internet telephony system and independent technical servers were seized along with a 40 feet high antenna. The seized equipments were later sent for examination to the Computer Emergency Response Team.

The NIA probe seeks to identify the chain of players behind the financing of terrorist activities, pelting of stones on security forces, burning down of schools and damaging of government establishments.

The Centre has been trying to crackdown terror groups in the valley. Earlier, it had cracked the under-invoicing of goods passing through the border trading points between Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Jammu and Kashmir.

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