New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday questioned hardline separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s son-in-law, Altaf Ahmed Shah, popularly known as Altaf Fantoosh, in connection with its investigation into the funding of terror and subversive activities in Kashmir.
A team of officials grilled Shah, who arrived at the NIA headquarters here this morning, regarding the alleged funding of the Geelani-led Tehreek-e-Hurriyat.
The NIA called Shah for questioning days after collecting “some material” from Shah’s Srinagar residence during a raid. The sleuths scrutinised the “material” before calling Shah for questioning.
Apart from being the son-in-law of Geelani, Shah is perceived to be influential in the policies of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat.
The NIA had carried out raids at 26 places on June 03 and seven places on June 04 across Srinagar, Delhi, and Haryana. Besides Shah, among those raided were separatists Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Nayeem Khan and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias ‘Bitta Karate’.
The raids were part of NIA’s efforts to clamp down on separatist groups allegedly receiving funds for subversive activities in the Valley.
The NIA had recovered unaccounted account books, Rs 2 crore in cash and letterheads of banned terror groups including LeT and HM.
The NIA investigation also seeks to identify the chain of players behind the financing of terrorist activities, including those who threw stones at security forces, burned down schools and damaged Government establishments.
Bank accounts and lockers revealed during the probe had been frozen.
Besides electronic gadgets, phone diaries and documents such as rough receipts and vouchers had been seized from alleged hawala operators, financiers and office bearers of separatist groups.
