Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali, arrested in terror funding case, sent to 10-day NIA custody

Srinagar: Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali, who was arrested in terror funding case, was on Friday sent to 10-day NIA custody.

Watali is said to be close to hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday conducted searches at about a dozen locations in Jammu and Kashmir in connection with the terror funding case against separatists and others which included the residence of a relative of a ruling PDP MLC.

The NIA on Wednesday conducted searches at a dozen locations in Jammu and Kashmir, including the house of Watali.

An NIA spokesperson said in New Delhi that officials searched the premises belonging to the family, relatives and aides of Zahoor Watali - an influential Kashmiri businessman known to be friends with Pakistani leaders and separatists as well as mainstream politicians in Kashmir.

Former Pakistan-administered Kashmir Prime Minister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhary had attended the marriage ceremony of Watali's son at the businessman's residence in the posh Srinagar neighbourhood of Baagaat. His business empire is reportedly spread in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Dubai.

The central probe agency had arrested seven persons on July 24 in the case of alleged funding of terror and subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley to fuel unrest.

The NIA had alleged that money was being raised to fund separatist and terror activities in J&K.

The agency had claimed that the accused were waging war against the country and were involved in various offences punishable under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Shah is among those arrested. Other arrested are Nayeem Khan, Ayaz Akbar Khanday, Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Peer Saifullah (all from Geelani's faction of Hurriyat), Shahid-ul-Islam (of the Hurriyat faction led by the Mirwaiz) and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karatay of a faction of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front.