Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the top most separatist of Jammu and Kashmir, and his family have amassed wealth worth crores and also own benami properties.
According to sources, government agencies have full details of the wealth amassed by the 13 top Kashmiri separatists. The huge wealth of these torchbearers of azadi in Kashmir poses an important question: what is the source of their income when they do separatism, which they term as movement for “azadi”, as a full time job?
The separatists, whose properties and wealth are under the scanner of government agencies, are: Syed All Shah Geelani, Altaf Ahmed Shah a.k.a Fatoosh, Naseem Geelani, Nayeem Geelani, Farooq Ahmad Dar a.k.a Bitta Karate, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Shabbir Shah, Yasin Malik, Mir Waiz, Mehraj-ud-din, Bashir Ahmed Bhat a.k.a Peer Saifullah, Asiya Andrabi and Nayeem Mohammed Khan.
SYED ALI SHAH GEELANI
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, chairman, All Party Hurriyat Conference, (Geelani faction) [APHC-G] has an ancestral bungalow at Dooru, Sopore, in Jammu and Kashmir that is worth Rs one crore. It is a two storey house on two kanals of land (one kanal is equal to 605 square yards or 1/8 acre).
His office cum residence is built on 1.5 kanals land at Rehmatabad colony, which is registered in the name of Milli Trust with five members―Bashir Ahmed Shot a.k.a Peer Saifullah, Mohd Ashraf, Sehraj, Altaf Ahmed Shah, Jawahira Begum and Dr Nayeed Geelani.
Geelani's two story house at Bulbulbagh, Barazulla has been transferred to Jel, Jammu and Kahsmir.
There is one Unique Public School in Dooru, Srinagar, of which the land is partially donated by villagers and partly out of Geelani's property. The school is run by a Trust, and Geelani has appointed his younger son Naseem Geelani as chairman of the school.
Geelani also owns a two-bedroom flat at Gupta Colony, Khirki Extension, Delhi for which Geelani paid Rs eight lakh and it has been registered in the name of GM Bhat (hawala conduit).
He owns a two storey house at Bagh-e-Mehtab, Srinagar and has been registered in the name of Geelani's eldest daughter Chasfida.
Geelani's another three-storied bungalow built on half kanal land at Bemina, Srinagar has been registered in the name of his daughter Zahida. The octogenarian separatist also owns around 100-150 kanals of land at Singpore Pattan. Geelani has a double storey house at Rehmatabad in his name.
Four vehicles in Hyderpora belong to Geelani.
Sources say that Geelani's son Naseem Geelani looks after real estate matters of the family.
Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Funtoosh, who has been looking after his affairs for year, owns land in Dompora Sow. Altai Funtoosh, Advocate Shahfi Rishi and his nephew Yaseer Rishi (MLC) own around 100-150 kanals of land in Sumbal, Zainkund-Bandipora Road.
So far, four Benami properties have also been discovered and the subjects will be questioned about the same, say the sources.
ALTAF AHMED SHAH
Altaf Ahmed Shah is chief organiser of APHC-G and son-in-law of Geelani. He owns a two storey house built on half kanal at Bagh-e-Mehtab, two-room house at Bhatindi and ancestral hosiery shop at LaI Chowk, Srinagar, eight kanals land in Handoora village, Ganderbal district, Srinagar. He also owns a double storey house, No. 119 at HIG Colony, Bemina worth Rs 1.50 crore.
So far, three benami properties have also been discovered and the subjects will be questioned about the same, say the sources.
NASEEM GEELANI
Naseem Geelani, son of S.A.S. Geelani, owns house built on five marlas (one marla is 272.251 square feet) at Rawalpora, Srinagar and land/orchard at Doru, Sopore. The NIA says that Naseem Geelani, in March 2017, took over the charge of Unique Public School, Sopore as its chairman, after a long tussle with G.M. Bhat (former chairman). The Geelani family also wanted to own eight kanals of land in Sopore that may have been given by local villagers in 1980 for construction of the school.
So far, two benami properties being needs further verification, say the sources.
NAYEEM GEELANI
Nayeem Geelani, son of S.A.S. Geelani, jointly owns four canals of agriculture land at Humana, Rawalpora Byepass, Srinagar with his brother Naseem Geelani.
He also owns land/orchard on 40 kanals in Dooru, Sopore. Besides this, he also owns some ancestral property in the form of land and orchards.
Nayeem is also owner of an eight-room house at Sanat Nagar, Srinagar. He also owns a flat in New Delhi's Vasant Kunj area, and also a single storey house having 10-12 rooms that is worth Rs 75 lakh.
He also owns apple orchard and two houses built on 5.5 Kanals. The market value of per canal is Rs 5 lakh.
He is also the owner of Asian Minerals (limestone quarry) which is in the name of his brother Muneer Khan.
So far, two benami properties need further verification, say the sources.
The Kashmiri separatists are under the scanner of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) after several top Kashmiri separatists were caught on camera confessing to receiving funds from across the border.
The sting operation, carried by a news channel, showed Hurriyat's Provincial President (Geelani faction) Nayeem Khan admitting on camera that Pakistan is funding the violence in Kashmir Valley.
The NIA visited Srinagar in May to probe the alleged funding by Pakistan for illegal activities in Kashmir, and questioned several separatist leaders on the issue of raising, collecting and transferring funds via the Hawala route and other channels to fund terror activities in Kashmir.
The NIA has so far arrested seven Kashmiri separatists and produced them, on Tuesday, before a Delhi court, which sent them to 10-day NIA custody over money laundering charges to fund terror in the Kashmir Valley.
The arrested separatists are: Altaf Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Mehraj Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Naeem Khan and Bitta Karate.
