Never has a sting operation in Kashmir Valley has such wide repercussions, almost shutting shop of separatist leaders.

Nearly two months after India Today TV exposed three top separatist leaders in the Kashmir Valley for fuelling unrest in the state by taking hawala money from Pakistan, two of them Naeem Khan and Bitta Karate were amongst seven arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The others who were arrested on Monday included Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah alias Altaf Fantosh, the spokesperson for Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah - the trio close to separatist leader Geelani - Raja Merajuddin Kalwal, Saheed Ul Islam were charged with funding terror groups in Kashmir and indulging in anti-national and subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley, officials sources said.

Of the seven, Karate was arrested in New Delhi, while the rest were arrested in Srinagar. The leaders will be produced at NIA's Special Court in Patiala House on Tuesday for further proceedings. NIA has not ruled out further arrests in the case. Sources said NIA is likely to ask for 14 days of police remand. The grilling of the separatist leaders will continue in custody.

Sharad Kumar Director General (DG) NIA told India Today: "We have collected sufficient evidence against the 7 accused. We will take them into police custody and grill them on their terror links."

Sources said the next course of action will be to send notices to separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik. Incidentally, Naeem Khan was once a close aide of Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Bitta Karate a commander of JKLF and close aide of Yasin Malik. Shahid-Ul-Islam is known to be close to Mirwaiz.

Only Javed Gazi Baba has managed to evade arrest, but sources said, "There is not enough material evidence against him yet. But it is only a matter of time."

According to the sources in Ministry of Home Affairs, the leaders are required by the agency to unearth the larger conspiracy and the money trail from Pakistan. The investigation agency had conducted 26 raids after registering the FIR on 30th May, 2017.

The NIA, last month, had also raided the houses of the 7 accused and recovered account books, Rs 2 crore in cash and letterheads of banned terror groups, including of the LeT and HM.

The agency's investigation seeks to identify the chain of players behind the financing of terrorist activities, including pinpointing those who pelted stones at security forces, burnt down schools and damaged government establishments. Alok Mittal Inspector General (IG) NIA said, "The agency had collected evidence and documents. It is proved beyond doubt the separatist were receiving money from Hawala funds, cross LoC trade and cash."

Besides NIA sifted through heavy duty paper work, examining chargesheets of 13 accused in stone-pelting and even accessing records of recently arrested terrorists, all in a bid to further the case. The role of the accused has been established and their terror links proved beyond doubt, said the senior officer.

Hafeez Saeed, the Pakistan-based chief of the Jamaat-ud Dawa, the front of the banned Lashker-e-Taiba, has been named in the FIR as an accused, in addition to organisations such as the Hurriyat Conference (factions led by Geelani and separatist Mirwaiz Farooq), Hizbul Mujahideen and Dukhtaran-e-Milat. Asiya Andrabi, sources said, will also be called soon.

Lauding the effort of NIA, Minister of State (MoS) Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said, "Terrorists and separatists have disrupted peace. We plan to eliminate terrorists and will show separatists their place."

The Hurriyat leadership has called for a bandh in Kashmir on Tuesday to protest the arrest of its leaders in an alleged terror funding case, which it said was "fabricated" and aimed at misleading the people of India.

Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, in a joint statement, gave a call for complete strike tomorrow in the Valley to protest and condemn the "revengeful, arbitrary and illegal action".

Mirwaiz tweeted that the arrests were aimed at misleading people of India. "Drama enacted by govt using the NIA to malign people's political movement & leadership in Kashmir & to mislead people of India. Lies, propaganda." A top source said, "time is running out" for the separatist leader.

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