Seperatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s son-in-law detained in terror fund probe

In the beginning of this month, the NIA had conducted raids across as many as 23 locations across Delhi, Haryana and Kashmir in connection with the Pakistani funding which the Kashmiri separatist leaders are believed to receive in order to spread terror in the valley.

The NIA in the process raided various hawala operators and traders and seized around Rs 1.5 crore from various locations in the Kashmir Valley. On top of it, the agency had also recovered a few incriminating documents.

The NIA had also conducted a raid on establishments of various prominent separatists like Shahid-ul-Islam, a prominent leader of Awami Action Committee of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference and Altaf Fantoosh who is the son-in-law of Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Now it seems that the son-in-law of Geelani is in further trouble after it was reported that he had been detained by the NIA on Wednesday in connection with the terror funding probe. Two other Hurryat leaders named Ayaz Akbar and Mehraj ud Din Kalwal were also detained by the agency.

Fantoosh, the son-in-law of Geelani was also questioned by the NIA on 12th June with regards to his movable and immovable assets and the source of their funding. This has reportedly prompted Geelani to squeal that the NIA had crossed all limits and also claimed that there was no legal justification for such arbitrary measures.

This action by the NIA is a welcome change from the attitude of the administration, which has continued to pander to the whims and fancies of these separatists. Till date, the government continues to provide a security cover to these separatists.

Even though Geelani in particular has taken up a separatist stand, this doesn’t stop him from taking favours from the Indian government. It has been reported in 2016 about how the rules were bent to provide a government job to the grandson of Geelani under the tourism department of the J&K government.

It was also recently reported how while the schools across the valley had remained closed for 111 days due to the bandh called by the seperatists, the grand-daughter of Geelani was allowed to appear for a school exam at an indoor stadium under stringent security arrangements.