Non-bailable warrants issued against Hafiz Saeed, Salahuddin

New Delhi, Nov 2 (IANS) A special court here issued non-bailable warrants against Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin in a Jammu and Kashmir terror funding case being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), an official said on Friday.

The court issued the warrants on Thursday against the two Pakistan-based terrorist leaders for their active involvement in terror funding for creating unrest in the Kashmir valley and other parts of India.

The move came after the NIA approached the court seeking issuance of non-bailable warrants against Saeed, also the founder of proscribed Jamat-ud-Dawa, and Salahuddin alias Yusuf Shah, a resident of Budgam district in Jammu and Kashmir who presently resides in Islamabad.

"The two are accused of mobilising Pakistan-trained terrorists and pushing them into India from Pakistan in connivance with secessionist and separatist leaders for waging war against India with the nefarious design of seceding Jammu and Kashmir," the NIA official said.

The anti-terror agency had on January 18 filed chargesheet against 12 persons including Saeed, Salahuddin, seven Kashmiri separatist leaders and others in the case of alleged terror funding in the Kashmir Valley.

The separatist leaders arrested in the case on July 24, 2017 are Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah.

Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan. Shahid-ul-Islam is an aide of moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Khandey is the spokesperson for the Geelani-led Hurriyat.

Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali was also arrested in the case on August 17, 2017, and was on September 12 granted bail by the Delhi High Court.