Rifts In Hurriyat Over Fund Collection, Says National Investigation Agency

New Delhi: There are rifts within the separatist Hurriyat Conference in the Kashmir Valley over collection and use of funds raised abroad, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said on Sunday. A NIA statement quoted Muslim League leader Masrat Alam, the so-called poster boy of stone pelters in the Valley, as telling NIA officials that Pakistan-based agents routed the funds raised abroad to Jammu and Kashmir through hawala operators. These were transferred to separatist leaders, including hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Shah Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan. “Masrat Alam also revealed that there are rifts in the Hurriyat Conference regarding collection and use of funds,” the statement said.

Masrat Alam was arrested along with separatist leaders Shabir Shah and Asiya Andrabi as well as Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) head Yasin Malik in connection with the investigation into violence in the Kashmir Valley. During his interrogation, the NIA said it confronted Shabir Shah with evidence about his investments in various hotels and businesses in Pahalgam as well as properties in Jammu, Srinagar and Anantnag. Andrabi admitted that she had been collecting funds and donations from foreign sources, and her organisation, the Duktaran-e-Millat, had been organising protests by Muslim women in the Valley, the NIA said. (IANS)

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