The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has detained senior separatist leader and National Front Chairman Nayeem Ahmad Khan in connection with a hawala case.
According to NIA officials, Khan was detained after the investigating agency conducted a preliminary enquiry.
Khan was purportedly shown admitting to receiving funds from Pakistan in a sting operation conducted by a New Delhi-based private news channel. However, he rejected the sting operation and said that it was shown in “bits and pieces”.
In wake of the row, Nayeem Khan’s National Front, which is a constituent of Hurriyat (G), was temporarily suspended from membership by chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Geelani had said that till the matter is clarified, National Front would remain suspended.
"The questioning of Nayeem Khan and Ghazi Javed Baba is still underway," said an NIA spokesperson. He added that the accused was asked to produce certain documents for examination. The NIA raided the house of National Front chairman Nayeem Khan. It is verifying the contents of the sting operation, in which the separatists talked about receiving money from Pakistan for funding violent activities including torching of schools and stone-pelting.
“The hotel in Srinagar where the sting operation took place has been identified. The NIA team is completing formalities like identification of room and collection of records,” said the spokesperson. He said that the agency was probing all angles of funding for separatist leaders.
