NIA attaches properties of Hizbul chief Syed Salahuddin’s sons in J&K
In a major crackdown on terror, the National Investigation Agency on Monday attached two properties of the sons of designated terrorist Syed Salahuddin, who is the chief of terrorist outfit Hizbul Mujahideen.
The probe agency has seized the immovable properties of Shahid Yusuf and Syed Ahmed Shakeel, which are located in Budgam Soibugh Tehsil, Distt. Budgam and Nursing Garh, Mohalla Ram Bagh, under section 33(1) of UA( P) Act, NIA said in a statement.
Both the sons of the designated terrorist are currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jails after being arrested in October 2017 and August 2018 respectively. The duo was chargesheeted on allegations of receiving funds from abroad from the associates of Salahuddin and overground Hizbul Mujahideen workers.
Salahuddin had fled to Pakistan in 1993 and was designated as a terrorist by the Narendra Modi government in October 2020. He is currently operating from Pakistan. He is also the chief of United Jihad Council (UJC), also known as Muttahida Jihad Council (MJC), a conglomerate of around 13 Pakistan-based terror outfits.
Besides instigating and operationalising terror activities in India, primarily in J&K, Salahuddin has been raising funds and routing finances to India through trade routes, hawala and international funding channels to further terror activities of his organisation.
The central probe agency had launched investigations in November 2011 into the criminal conspiracy to raise, collect and provide funds to commit terror acts and distribute money among terrorist groups and their sympathisers in J&K.
The Special Cell of Delhi Police had initially registered a case in January 2011 and the case was subsequently taken over by NIA. Chargesheets as well as supplementary chargesheets were filed against eight accused in the case, including in 2011 and 2018.
NIA has been cracking down on terror funding machinery in a bid to dismantle the terrorist financing ecosystem operating in Jammu and Kashmir with the help of individuals based in Pakistan and other countries, the agency said.
On Monday itself, the agency had also seized six shops in Awantipora in a case relating to a 2018 attack on CRPF Group Centre at Lethpora, J&K. Some land, including a house, belonging to the father of one of the accused was also attached in the same case in September 2020.