A National Investigation Agency (NIA) court has ordered framing of charges against Pakistani terrorist and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, Kashmiri separatist leaders including Yasin Malik, Shabbir Shah, Masarat Alam, Kashmiri politician and former MLA Rashid Engineer, Businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Bitta Karate, Aftab Ahmad Shah, Avatar Ahmad Shah, Naeem Khan, Bashir Ahmed Bhat, alias Peer Saifullah and several others under various sections of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) including criminal conspiracy, waging war against the country, unlawful activities etc in a case related o the terrorist and secessionist activities that disturbed Jammu and Kashmir.
The court noted that money for terror funding was sent by Pakistan and its agencies and even the diplomatic mission was used to fulfil the evil design. It also said that money for terror funding was also sent by proclaimed international terrorist and accused Hafiz Saeed, reported ANI.
The court noted that, during the course of arguments, none of the accused has argued that individually they do not have a secessionist ideology or agenda or that they have not worked for secession or advocated for the secession of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir from the Government of India.
NIA special Judge Praveen Singh in an order passed on March 16 said, “the above analysis reflects that the statements of witnesses and documentary evidence have connected almost all the accused with each other and to a common object of secession, to the commonality of means they were to use, their close association to terrorist/terrorist organizations under the guiding hand and funding of Pakistani establishment”.
However, the court clarified that whatever has been expressed in this order is a prima facie opinion although, a detailed discussion of the evidence had to be done because the arguments were advanced by both sides in much detail.