Moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq will appear before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Monday in connection with a case related to terror funding, after he was assured by the agency that his security would be ensured, officials said Sunday.
Hurriyat Conference leaders Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Lone and Maulana Abbas Ansari also decided to rally behind the Mirwaiz and would be accompanying him to the NIA headquarters to express their solidarity, members of the separatist conglomerate said.
In 2004, the same group of leaders had met the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and then home minister L K Advani for finding a lasting solution to the Kashmir issue.
A statement issued by the Hurriyat Conference in Srinagar said that a meeting of its executive members was held which strongly condemned the move of summoning the Mirwaiz. It claimed that its chairman was "being deliberately harassed and there was an effort to criminalise leadership for their political stand".
It said the Hurriyat is a coalition of political parties striving for the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue and to associate it with anything to do with terror is ridiculous and a deliberate victimisation for their political ideology.
"It's unfortunate that while they have always maintained that Kashmir is a political issue that needs resolution peacefully and humanely and always worked towards that end... yet rulers of the day are resorting to such tactics to harass and intimidate them under the garb of legality," it said.
The statement said that despite having nothing to do with the matter, the Mirwaiz through his lawyer had said he was ready to cooperate in the investigation but asked the agency to hold it in Srinagar as he had several genuine concerns, including serious security concerns in New Delhi.
"It is unfortunate that they did take into account the other concerns and are insisting on investigation in Delhi. The meeting decided that they will all accompany the Mirwaiz to New Delhi for the investigation," it said.
The Mirwaiz or any member of Hurriyat Conference has nothing to do with the "so called funding case and it is sheer vindictiveness on the part of authorities", it said.
The NIA had on February 26 carried out searches at premises of several leaders, including the Mirwaiz.
The probe agency had questioned two maternal uncles of the Mirwaiz, Maulvi Manzoor and Maulvi Shafat, and his close aides last year. Both Manzoor and Shafat are retired senior government officers.
He had been asked to appear before the NIA on March 11 and March 18 but the Mirwaiz had expressed his inability to join the investigation in the national capital fearing for his security in view of "conditions of hostility".
The Mirwaiz had informed the NIA that he was not acquainted with the subject matter of the FIR referred to in the NIA's notice and also added that the notice appears to have been issued on the basis of "fallacious assumptions and misinformation solely aimed at maligning" him.
The NIA probe seeks to identify the chain of players behind the financing of terrorist activities, pelting of stones on on security forces, burning down of schools and damaging of of government establishments.
The case names Hafeez Saeed, Pakistan-based chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), the front for banned Lashker-e-Taiba, as an accused, besides organisations such as the Hurriyat Conference factions led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the Mirwaiz, Hizbul Mujahideen and Dukhtaran-e-Millat.
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