NIA attaches 17 properties of terror financing accused Zahoor Watali in case linked to Yasin Malik
The National Investigation Agency on Monday attached 17 properties belonging to Zahoor Ahmed Shah Watali, accused of financing terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, in connection with a Hurriyat terror funding case in which Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) commander Yasin Malik is serving life imprisonment.
Besides Malik, 17 others including Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen commander Syed Salahuddin were chargesheeted in the case registered by the agency on May 30, 2017. Malik was convicted in all the charges against him and sentenced to life imprisonment in May last year.
According to NIA, the case pertains to terror activities in J&K by Pakistan’s ISI-backed organisations like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) etc. These outfits were spreading terror and perpetrating violence in the valley by promoting and conducting attacks on civilians and security forces.
As per NIA, 17 properties belonging to Watali in Handwara area of Kupwara in Kashmir have been attached by the agency on orders by special NIA Court, Patiala House, under section 33(1) of the UA(P) Act today.
The agency said these banned terror groups were using the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) as a front for carrying out and supporting secessionist activities in Kashmir valley. Investigations revealed that the secessionists, arraigned as accused in the case, including the APHC, had entered into a criminal conspiracy and adopted a strategy of instigating the general public to create a ‘surcharged atmosphere’ in the Kashmir valley and to resort to violence also.
Watali had been sending the funds raised by him from various sources to the Hurriyat leaders to promote the secession of Jammu & Kashmir from the Union of India, the probe agency statement added.
According to NIA, Watali was a hawala conduit and was receiving money from Saeed, a US-designated terrorist. The JuD chief had masterminded the 2001 Parliament attacks and the Mumbai 26/11 terror attacks.
He had received foreign remittances into bank account running into crores between 2011 and 2013 from various sources. Besides, Watali had received foreign remittances in his Proprietorship Firm named M/s ‘Trisson International’, Srinagar and unexplained remittances were also found in his NRE Bank accounts.
The NIA said Zahoor Watali had shown the sale of a plot of land measuring 20 kanals, purportedly owned by Watali’s company, M/s ‘Trison Farms and Constructions Pvt. Ltd.’ to one Naval Kishore Kapoor, a co-accused in the case. However, the NIA investigations found that neither Watali nor his above-mentioned company was the owner of this plot of land in the revenue records.