STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: The NIA on Monday raided the ancestral house of a lawyer, who is believed to be a close associate of hardline separatist hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani on suspicion of routing funds to separatists from their Pakistan-based handlers.
Divender Singh Behl’s native place of Nowshera was rocked by protests over his links with separatists and anti- India activities.
An NIA team conducted raids at the ancestral house of Behl in the Nowshera belt of Rajouri district, an official said.
STATE TIMES correspondent reported that a seven-member NIA team this afternoon raided the ancestral house of Divender Singh Behl (House Number 25, Ward Number 7) in Nowshera tehsil of Rajouri district.
NIA officials questioned the family members and Behl’s other close relatives besides enquiring about his activities from the villagers.
“NIA has collected some documents and vital information from the family members,” sources said.
The NIA had on Sunday searched the lawyer’s Jammu- based office and residence.
Behl is the Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Social Peace Forum (JKSPF), a constituent of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat headed by Geelani.
He also is a member of the legal cell of the separatist amalgam led by Geelani and a “close associate” of the Hurriyat hawk.
Behl also regularly attends the funeral processions of militants, the anti-terror probe agency had yesterday said.
A large number of youth took out a protest march in Nowshera over Behl’s links with Geelani. They shouted slogans against him and demanded that he be punished for “working against the country”.
On Sunday NIA found a detailed protest calendar issued and signed by Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani during a crackdown on Kashmiri separatists for their alleged involvement in funding terror activities, underlining the party’s role in instigating violence in Jammu and Kashmir.
NIA had recovered the ‘protest calendar’ from his son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah ‘Funtoosh’ .
It marked the activities for August 2016, a month after the encounter of Hizbul Mujahideen leader Burhan Wani on July 8, 2016.
Meanwhile the video clips and posters of detainee are also being circulated on social media wherein he was seen addressing a Hurriyat rally in Kashmir amid slogans, ‘hum kya chahte Azadi’ (we want Azadi).
Sources however, said that he is still under detention of the NIA for further questioning in terror funding.
This was the second such raid by the NIA in Jammu in less than two months. On June 4, NIA raided the shops and residences of two local businessmen at Nehru Market and Gandhi Nagar areas.