New Delhi/Srinagar: National Investigation Agency (NIA) teams on Saturday carried out raids at over 23 places including 14 places in Srinagar, eight places in the national capital and one places in Haryana in connection with terror funding in the valley by Pakistan-based terrorist groups.
Raids started on early Saturday morning and were on till afternoon, said sources.
Sources said that the locations being raided are residences and offices belonging to Hurriyat members and big hawala traders, mostly from the Kashmir vally who were suspected to have acted as conduits for terror funding in the Valley.
In the national capital, the raids are being conducted in Greater Kailash, Pitampura and Ballimaran in Chandni Chowk, said an official.
The most astonishing aspect of the current multiple raids is that the NIA has already recovered cash worth Rs 1.25 crore in the raid at a residential location in Kashmir
In the ongoing raids, houses of three separatist leaders — Tehreek-e-Hurriyat leader Ghazi Javed Baba, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Farooq Ahmed Dar also known as Bitta Karate and suspended Hurriyat leader Nayeem Khan, who confessed to receiving funds from Pakistan to incite trouble in Kashmir in videos released by the India Today TV channel, were searched.
Simultaneous raids were also being carried out in Delhi which includes areas in Ballimaran and Chandni Chowk, officials said.
The raids came in the wake of a preliminary enquiry (PE) against Hurriyat Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani and his close aide and Hurriyat provincial President Nayeem Khan, Dar and Baba on May 19.
The raids in the national capital were carried out as the separatist leaders confessed in the sting operation video that they received funds from Pakistan via middlemen based in Ballimaran and Chandni Chowk.
A senior NIA official said that the case registered by the agency a few days ago, terror funds allegedly sourced from Pakistan-based terror outfits like Lashker e Taiba were used for fuelling unrest in the Valley through incidents of stone-pelting and targeting of schools and public property.
India Today news channel had aired a sting on May 16, in which the separatist leaders were allegedly seen in conversation with the reporter confessing that they received money from Pakistan through hawala channels.
The three separatist leaders were earlier questioned by the agency in Delhi on Monday and Tuesday.
Between May 19 to May 22, the counter-terror agency also questioned Baba and Dar for four consecutive days in Srinagar, regarding their alleged involvement in raising and receiving funds through hawala. Khan was also grilled on May 19.
On May 20, the NIA had collected details of 13 accused and chargesheeted those involved in cases of arson attacks on schools and public property in Kashmir. (with agencies inputs)