NIA attaches 17 properties of Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali in terror funding case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has attached 17 properties of Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmed Shah Watali. According to the NIA, Watali has been involved in the Hurriyat terror funding case. Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief and separatist leader Yasin Malik is currently serving life imprisonment in connection with the case.

“Besides Yasin Malik, 17 others, including Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, amir of Jamaat-ud-Dawah & top commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Mohammed Yusuf Shah aka Syed Salahuddin, top Commander of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, were charge-sheeted in the case, which had been registered suo moto by the NIA on 30May 2017. Malik was convicted in all the various charges against him, and sentenced to life imprisonment and fine, in the case in May 2022,” said National Investigation Agency.

According to the NIA, the case relates to terrorist and secessionist activities in Jammu & Kashmir carried out by proscribed ISI-backed organisations, such as LeT, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) etc. These outfits were spreading terror and perpetrating violence in the Valley by promoting and conducting attacks on civilians and security forces.

“Seventeen properties belonging to Watali in the Handwara area of Kupwara in Kashmir have been attached by the NIA on orders by Special NIA Court, Patiala House, under section 33(1) of the UA(P) Act today,” said NIA.

These banned terrorist groups were using the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) as a front for carrying out and supporting secessionist activities in Kashmir. Investigations in the case have revealed that the secessionists, arraigned as accused in the case, including from the APHC, had entered into a criminal conspiracy and adopted a strategy of instigating the general public to create a supercharged atmosphere in the Kashmir Valley. NIA added that Watali had been sending the funds raised by him from various sources to the Hurriyat leaders to promote the secessionist activities in Jammu & Kashmir.

“NIA investigations have revealed that Watali was a Hawala conduit, who was receiving money from Hafiz Saeed, a ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist’ of the United States and a ‘listed global terrorist’ of the UN. Hafiz Saeed had masterminded the 2001 Parliament attack and the 2008 Mumbai attacks. He had received foreign remittances into a bank account running into crores between 2011 and 2013 from various sources. Besides, he had received foreign remittances in his proprietorship firm named M/s ‘Trisson International’, Srinagar and unexplained remittances were also found in his NRE Bank accounts,“ said NIA.

The NIA said that Watali had shown the sale of a plot of land, purportedly owned by Watali’s company, M/s ‘Trison Farms and Constructions Pvt. Ltd.’ to one Naval Kishore Kapoor, a co-accused in the case. However, the investigations found that neither Watali nor his above-mentioned company was the owner of this plot of land. Watali is presently facing trial before the Special NIA Court in New Delhi.

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