NIA summons Er Rashid in terror funding case

Srinagar, Sept 28: The National Investigation Agency has summoned Awami Ittehad Party chairman and MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid in connection with terror funding case. Er Rashid has been asked to present himself before the NIA in the national capital on October 3. Even though the investigation agency has quizzed several people, including businessmen and separatists, this is for the first time that a sitting MLA has been summoned by the agency in connection with the terror funding case. Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation president Mohammad Yaseen Khan and Kashmir University research scholar Aala Fazili are being questioned by the NIA since Monday. The Patiala Court in Delhi yesterday extended the judicial custody of separatist leader Shabir Shah till October 13 in a 2005 money laundering case for alleged terror financing. The NIA also questioned twice Kashmir Bar Association president Advocate Mian Abdul Qayoum, who was later given a clean chit. However, lawyers suspended work in courts against summoning Advocate Qayoum by NIA. Two youth, including a photo-journalist, were also arrested in connection with funding stone pelting in south Kashmir, evoking massive protests from media organisations here. Besides these two, the NIA has arrested more than a dozen separatist leaders and businessmen in connection with terror funding from Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The arrests followed raids at the residence of over a dozen separatist leaders, including spokesman for both the factions of Hurriyat Conference, sons of separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, his son-in-law and National Front chief Nayeem Ahmad Khan, who allegedly admitted during a sting operation that separatists were receiving money from abroad for terror and stone pelting activities. Khan, was later expelled from the separatist outfit. UNI