Subterfuge, deceit, double dealing, Mehbooba aide Parra had Pak blessing to eliminate political opponents

New Delhi, June 09: Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra a close aide of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Muft was willing to go to any lengths to eliminate his political opponents by paying terror groups, investigations have shown.

A police chargesheet filed against him says that he had been an asset for terror groups based out of Pakistan for 13 years. The chargesheet running into 19 pages details his journey from a journalist in 2007 to becoming a politician. The police say his is a saga of subterfuge, deceit and double dealing.

The chargesheet was filed by the NIA court by the Criminal Investigation Kashmir, a wing of the CID department. The chargesheet was filed with the help of five protected witnesses and technical intelligence.

The police say that Parra was hand in glove with the terrorists and was furthering the Pakistan's activities. He was working to get his political adversaries neutralised, it also said. His lawyer has denied all these charges during various court proceedings related to his bail and custodial pleas, and claimed that his client, who won the District Development Council elections last year, was being made a political scapegoat.

In March this year, Parra was charged by the NIA and it was alleged that the PDP leader had paid Rs 5 crore to the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani for keeping Kashmir in turmoil after the death of Burhan Wani, the poster boy of Hizbul Mujahideen, in 2016.

The NIA accused Parra, who was arrested last November, of being involved with banned terrorist groups like Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The NIA alleged that after the death of Wani, who was killed in an encounter with the Army in July 2016, Parra got in touch with Altaf Ahmad Shah, alias Altaf Fantoosh, and asked him to ensure that the valley was kept on the boil with widespread unrest and stone-pelting.

In January this year Parra was granted bail by the NIA court, which said there was no reference to him in the original as well as the supplementary chargesheets presented in July and October last year respectively.

However, he was arrested by the CIK Wing in the case related to nexus between mainstream politicians and secessionists, and he continues to be in jail since then.

His bail was rejected by the NIA Court in Srinagar.

The police in its chargesheet goes on to add that he had links with Pakistan-trained Abu Dujana and Abu Qassim, who were killed in separate encounters with security forces, and went on to allege that he used to meet them personally as well as through Over Ground Workers (OGWs). Further it said that the forced marriage between Dujana and a girl had the blessings of Parra.

In 2007, he had visited Pakistan and interview Hizbul Mujahideen chief, Syed Salahuddin and aired it on his local media channel, which was being operated from Pulwama. Parra joined the PDP in 2013 and "once ensconced in the safety of a recognised political party, the accused systematically went about strengthening himself by craftily deepening his roots on two sides of the divide India and Pakistan".

Further the police said he had the permission of the Pakistani establishment to keep throwing crumbs at India. This in turn allowed them petty political gains and systematically pushed the overall situation slowly but surely in the favour of Pakistan.

(With agency inputs)