NIA custody of Yasin Malik ends, will be lodged in Tihar jail

New Delhi, Apr 21: Yasin Malik, the chief of the JKLF will be shifted to the Tihar jail after a court ended his custody under the National Investigation Agency. Malik arrested by the NIA in connection with a terror funding case was remanded in judicial custody after he complained about his health.

Malik appeared before a magistrate, who visited him at the hospital. He will be lodged in the Tihar jail after he is discharged from hospital. Earlier his family members had complained about his ill-health.

NIA sources say that the funding has gone both to terrorist groups and separatists as well. Money has been pumped into the Hurriyat Conference, Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front, Islamic Students Front, Hizbul Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Jamiat ul-Mujahideen.

In the case of Syed Ali Shah Geelani an FIR had been registered in the year 1997 in which it was alleged that he had got funding to the tune of Rs 190 million from Saudi Arabia and also another donation of Rs 100 million from the Kashmir American Council. Investigations had revealed that all these funds were routed through a Delhi based Hawala operative. It was also found that Yasin Malik had received funding of 1 lakh US dollars and the money was being carried by a lady called Shazia.

The NIA says that it is probing into all these angles. We are looking at each case since the 1995 onwards and this will help us get a better picture of the entire racket, the officer further added.

Following his arrest, Malik was brought to the national capital after a special NIA court in Jammu gave the go ahead for his custodial interrogation by the probe agency, they said.

Malik, whose organisation JKLF was banned last month by the Centre, is also facing two CBI cases.

These relate to the kidnapping of Rubaiya Saeed, daughter of then Union home minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, in 1989, and the killing of four IAF personnel in 1990.

The NIA registered a case on May 30, 2017 against separatist and secessionist leaders, including unknown members of the Hurriyat Conference, who have been acting in connivance with active militants of proscribed terrorist organisations Hizbul Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and other outfits and gangs.

The case was registered for raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including hawala transactions, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in J&K and for causing disruption in the Valley by way of pelting stones on the security forces, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India, the probe agency said in the FIR.

Hafiz Saeed, the Pakistan-based chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the front for the banned LeT, has also been named as an accused in the FIR.