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Rashid is the first mainstream politician to be summoned by NIA in the case in which nearly a dozen separatists, businessman & others have been arrested

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has issued summons to an independent MLA from North Kashmir’s Langate constituency, Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid to appear before it on October 3 in connection with a case related to the funding of terror activities in the Valley, officials said.

Rashid is the first mainstream politician to be summoned by the agency in the case in which nearly dozen separatists, businessman and others have been arrested over the past two months.

The legislator’s name reportedly surfaced during the interrogation of businessman from Srinagar, Zahoor Watali, who was working as a conduit for separatists for over a decade, and was arrested by the NIA recently for allegedly facilitating funding of separatists in Kashmir valley for anti-India operations.

Rashid has been strenuously denying any involvement in the case and has appealed to the Assembly Speaker to initiate an inquiry. He termed the NIA summons a politically motivated stunt and said that peace cannot be maintained by regular harassment of genuine Kashmiri leadership.

“New Delhi should introspect and understand that Kashmiri’s are neither India’s enemies nor are seeking any resolution to the 70-year long dispute on communal lines. But it is New Delhi which had promised the right to self-determination for people of the united state,” Rashid said in a statement.

The NIA had registered a case on May 30 against separatist leaders who have been acting in connivance with active militants of proscribed terrorist organisations Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other outfits, officials said. The probe agency in FIR stated that case was lodged for raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including hawala, for funding separatist and terrorist activities and causing disruption in the valley by pelting stones on the security forces, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief, Hafiz Saeed as well as organisations including two factions of the Hurriyat, one led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the other by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the Hizbul Mujahideen and the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, an all-women separatist outfit have been named among accused in the FIR.

The NIA has arrested 10 people so far in the case, including Geelani’s son-in-law Altaf Shah, Key aides, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah and Zahoor Watali. Shahid-ul-Islam, spokesperson of the moderate Hurriyat conference, photo-journalist Kamran Yusuf and Javed Ahmed Bhat are also in the list.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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