Muzaffarabad Mohammad Yusuf Shah aka Syed Salahuddin, the chief of terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, made a rare appearance in the Muzaffarabad area of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Salahuddin fled to Pakistan in 1993 and continues to operate from there, and he was designated as an individual terrorist by India in October 2020.
Salahuddin was spotted at a gathering in Muzaffarabad on April 20 (Saturday). As per reports, Salahuddin has been guiding and instructing Hizbul Mujahideen cadres as well as activists of UJC, also known as Muttahida Jihad Council (MJC) which is a conglomerate of around 13 Pakistan-based Kashmir-centric terror outfits.
Besides instigating and operationalising militant activities in India, primarily in Kashmir valley, Syed Salahudeen has been raising funds and routing finances to India through trade routes, Hawala channels, and international money transfer channels for furthering the terrorist activities of HM cadres. Salahuddin also claimed that the HM was responsible for the Handwara attack in J-K in 2020, where five security personnel were killed.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) launched investigations in November 2011 into the criminal conspiracy to raise/collect/provide funds to commit terrorist acts and distribute funds among terror groups and their sympathizers in Jammu and Kashmir for the purpose of committing terrorist acts. The Special Cell of Delhi Police had initially registered a case in January 2011 and the case was subsequently taken over by NIA.
NIA attaches property of Salahuddin's sons
The NIA on Monday attached properties of Salahuddin’s sons Shahid Yusuf and Syed Ahmad Shakeel in Srinagar. According to a notice issued by the NIA, Immoveable Property (1567 and 1568) located at Revenue Estate, Nursing Garh, Mohalla Ram Bagh, Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, under the ownership of Shakeel, a 'listed militant' under UAPA Act, 1967.
Both Shahid Yusuf and Syed Ahmed Shakeel have been lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail since their arrest in October 2017 and August 2018. They were charge-sheeted on 20th April 2018 and 20th November 2018, respectively. The duo had been receiving funds from abroad from the associates of their father and overground workers of HM.
NIA has been cracking down on terror funding machinery in a bid to dismantle the terrorist financing ecosystem operating in Jammu and Kashmir with the help of individuals based in Pakistan and other countries. On Monday itself, the agency had also seized six shops in Awantipora in a case relating to a 2018 attack on the CRPF Group Centre at Lethpora, J&K. Some land, including a house, belonging to the father of one of the accused was also attached in the same case in September 2020.
In 2021, NIA had attached residential properties belonging to the kin of two accused in the case of the terrorist attack on the CRPF Convoy at Lethpora, Pulwama. Another residential property has also been attached by NIA in the case relating to the killing of two brothers (Anil Parihar and Ajit Parihar).
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