questioning

seven arrested Hurriyat leaders.

NEW DELHI: NIA, while analysing social media activity of “habitual” Kashmiri stone-pelters as part of its J&K terror funding probe, found at least 28 WhatsApp groups whose creators, administrators and some members are based in Pakistan and include identified cadres of terror outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawah.Sources in NIA on Tuesday told TOI that the WhatsApp groups together have 5,000 members, of which majority are local Kashmiris but a significant number are linked to Pakistani mobile numbers.Many of these groups have either been created by a Pakistani or have Pakistanis as their administrators. “We have identified Pakistani numbers in the WhatsApp groups. Some of these numbers also show up in JuD posters and publicity material, confirming JuD link to the J&K youth who regularly pelt stones to disrupt ongoing anti-terror operations, allegedly on payment arranged by Hurriyat separatists,” said an investigator.The origin of the funds is believed to be in Pakistan, though NIA says it can establish more specific details aftertheThe messages on the 28 Whatsapp groups tracked by NIA range from religious posts, terror-inciting material to updates on J&K militancy and ongoing anti-terror operations.There are messages posted during encounters between the terrorists and security forces in J&K, telling the participants how “your brothers have been cornered” and sharing details of the encounter site. “The idea is to mobilise the local youth for stone-pelting at the encounter site so that the terrorists can escape,” said an NIA officer.It was on the basis of these 28 WhatsApp groups that the NIA could zero in on phone numbers of 48 Kashmiri youth present at more than three encounter sites that saw stone-pelting protests over the past year.While the call details of the 48 youth showed frequent telephonic contact with local and middle-level Hurriyat leaders, who in turn were in touch with top-ranking separatists, their Facebook timelines confirmed their involvement and sympathies with terrorist leaders/outfits and their role in stone pelting.The agency is likely to arrest at least a dozen “habitual” stone-pelters whose location has been mapped across various districts of south Kashmir . Eventually, the probe is expected to reach right up to the top leadership of both hardline and moderate factions of Hurriyat. In fact, sources indicated Tehreek-e-Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s son Naeem Geelani may soon be summoned for questioning by NIA.