Kashmir terror financing: NIA to send letters rogatory to Pakistan

NEW DELHI: The NIA will soon approach a court to get a Letters Rogatory issued to Pakistan seeking details about some people allegedly indulging in false propaganda and running the website of the Hurriyat Conference's pro-Pakistan faction led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, officials said here.

The agency will seek details about Zakir-ulllah who, it believes, handles the websites of the Geelani faction of the Hurriyat Conference and terror group Hizbul Mujahideen.

After submitting a 12,794-page charge sheet in a case of terror financing in Kashmir Valley, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will soon approach the designated court for issuance of Letters Rogatory to Pakistan.


Once the court issues the Letters Rogatory, which is a request from a court of a sovereign nation to a court of another sovereign nation, the same will be vetted by the Legal and Treaties department of the Ministry and External Affairs and sent to Pakistan through diplomatic channels.

So far, Pakistan has never responded to such requests sent in other cases such as the hijacking of Indian Airlines plane in 1999, terror attacks including the Pathankot Indian Air Force base strike.

According to the NIA charge sheet, Zakir-ullah, who hails from Rawalpindi, had designed the website of Tehreek-e- Hurriyat and that of Hizbul Mujahideen and was regularly updating it during 2016 when the Valley was witnessing widespread stone pelting.

The telephone numbers mentioned on the website belong to the same individual and the same needs to be confirmed from Pakistan before further action could be taken, an NIA official said.

The NIA has also identified a few more individuals who were liaisoning with the Pakistani establishment especially its snooping agency ISI for the separatists groups hailing from Kashmir Valley.

In its charge sheet, the NIA named Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen leader Syed Salahuddin, seven separatists, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah, and prominent businessman Zahoor Watali.