Jammu and Kashmir | NIA attaches properties of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin’s son in Srinagar and Budgam
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday attached two properties of the sons of designated terrorist Syed Mohammed Yusuf Shah @ Syed Salahudeen, the self-styled Supreme Commander of Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen (HM) and Chairman of United Jihad Council (UJC).
The immovable properties of Shahid Yusuf and Syed Ahmed Shakeel, located in Kashmir – in Soibugh Tehsil, Distt. Budgam and Nursing Garh, Mohalla Ram Bagh, have been attached under section 33(1) of UA( P) Act.
Both Shahid Yusuf and Syed Ahmed Shakeel are lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail since their arrest in October 2017 and August 2018. They were chargesheeted on 20th April 2018 and 20th November 2018, respectively. The duo had been receiving funds from abroad from the associates of their father and overground workers of HM.
Syed Salahudeen, who had fled to Pakistan in 1993, was designated as an individual terrorist by India in October 2020. He continues to operate from Pakistan, from where he is guiding and instructing HUM cadres as well as activists of UJC, also known as Muttahida Jihad Council (MJC) which is a conglomerate of around 13 Pakistan-based Kashmir centric terror outfits.
Besides instigating and operationalising militant activities in India, primarily in Kashmir valley, Syed Salahudeen has been raising funds and routing finances to India through trade routes, Hawala channels, and international money transfer channels for furthering the terrorist activities of HM cadres.
The NIA launched investigations in November 2011 into the criminal conspiracy to raise/collect/provide funds to commit terrorist acts and distribute funds among the terror groups and their sympathizers in Jammu and Kashmir for the purpose of committing terrorist acts. The Special Cell of Delhi Police had initially registered a case in January 2011 and the case was subsequently taken over by NIA. Chargesheets as well as Supplementary Chargesheets were filed against eight accused in the case, including in 2011 and 2018.
NIA has been cracking down on terror funding machinery in a bid to dismantle the terrorist financing ecosystem operating in Jammu and Kashmir with the help of individuals based in Pakistan and other countries. On Monday itself, the agency had also seized six shops in Awantipora in a case relating to a 2018 attack on CRPF Group Centre at Lethpora, J&K. Some land, including a house, belonging to the father of one of the accused was also attached in the same case in September 2020. In 2021, NIA had attached residential properties belonging to the kin of two accused in the case of the terrorist attack on CRPF Convoy at Lethpora, Pulwama. Another residential property has also been attached by NIA in the case relating to the killing of two brothers (Anil Parihar and Ajit Parihar).
