Masrat Alam (above), Asiya Andrabi (below left) and Shabir Shah (below right) Masrat Alam (above), Asiya Andrabi (below left) and Shabir Shah (below right)

A Delhi court Tuesday sent Kashmir separatists Masarat Alam, Asiya Andrabi and Shabir Shah to 10-day custody after their arrest by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a terror funding case involving Jama’at-ud-Da’wah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind.

The NIA arrested the three today during in-chamber proceedings before Special Judge Rakesh Syal and sought 15-day custodial interrogation.

Alam was brought from Jammu and Kashmir on transit remand, while the remaining two, Asiya and Shah, were already in custody in separate cases, advocate MS Khan appearing for the accused told PTI.

In 2018, NIA had filed a chargesheet against Saeed, Syed Salahuddin and 10 other Kashmiri separatists in a case of alleged terror funding and secessionist activities in the valley.

The NIA informed that the accused have been chargesheeted with offenses punishable under sections 120B of IPC (criminal conspiracy) and various provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. Further, it said, the case was registered on May 30, 2017 and the first arrests were made on July 24 last year.

Shah was put in judicial custody in a decade-old money laundering case for alleged terror funding. According to the NIA, Shah had received Rs 10 lakh from hawala operator Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watal, a co-accused in the case. Further, it said, the money was also sent to the banned outfit Dukhtaraan-e-Milat of which Andrabi was the chief.

Andrabi, on the other hand, was serving jail time for allegedly waging a war against the country and delivering hate speeches in the valley.

The defence lawyers, opposing NIA’s submission, said there was no need to of custodial interrogation as the accused were already in custody with the NIA and the agency could interrogate them.

Besides Saeed and Salahuddin, the other 10 accused in the final report are – Hurriyat leader Syed Shah Geelani’s son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah, Geelani’s personal assistant Bashir Ahmad Bhat, media advisor and strategist of the Hurriyat Conference Aftab Ahmad Shah, secessionist outfit National Front chief Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Chairman of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (R) Farooq Ahmad Dar, media advisor of Hurriyat Conference (Geelani faction) Mohammad Akbar Khanday, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat official Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal, hawala operator Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watal and two stone-pelters – Kamran Yusuf and Javed Ahmad Bhat.

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