NIA conducts raids on house of Hizbul chief’s son in Budgam

Srinagar October 26
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) probing the funding of secessionist activities in Kashmir on Thursday morning raided the house of Shahid Yusuf, son of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Salah-ud-din, in central Kashmir’s Budgam district.
“On Thursday morning a team of NIA conducted the search on the house of Salah-ud-din’s son, Shahid Yousuf, at Saibugh,” Budgam SSP Tejinder Singh told The Tribune.
Shahid, 42, of Soibugh village in Budgam district is in NIA custody after he was arrested by the agency in a six-year-old militant funding case on Tuesday. He has been accused by the NIA of “receiving and collecting funds through international wire money transfer” from a Saudi Arabia-based Kashmiri, Aijaz Maqbool Bhat.
Bhat, according to the NIA, is a member of the Hizb and is an absconder in the hawala funding case against the six members of the militant outfit.
“Shahid has been arrested in a case pertaining to the terror financing of the Hizb, a proscribed terrorist organisation. He has been receiving and collecting funds through international wire money transfer,” said an NIA spokesperson, Inspector General Alok Mittal.
The NIA has filed two chargesheets against the six accused in the case, which dates back to 2011 when the Delhi Police’s special cell registered a case against the Hizbul Mujahideen under Sections 13, 17, 18 and 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The NIA has already arrested four people and issued red corner notice against the two absconding accused.
Shahid has a master’s degree in agriculture and since 2013 has been working as a village agricultural assistant in the J&K agriculture department.
Mittal says Shahid is one of the several Indian contacts of Bhat who have been in telephonic contact with him to receive the money transfer code.