The Jammu and Kashmir police registered 56 criminal cases against separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani in the last 31 years but probe is yet to be completed in 49 of them.
The state police managed to file a formal charge sheet in court only in two cases but they also remain under trial.
As the National Investigation Agency (NIA) terror funding probe against Geelani, his two sons and a son-in-law and other separatists gathers steam, HT analysed the earlier cases registered against the Hurriyat leader.
“The NIA will ensure that formal charges in connection with its terror funding probe are presented to the court as soon as possible and the trial completes at the earliest,” said an NIA official.
The federal anti-terror probe agency is looking into charges that separatist leaders, including Geelani, got funding from Hafiz Saeed, patron of terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, to fuel violence in the Valley.
“Except Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the rest of the separatists have faced arrest or detention. Once earlier also, New Delhi was very angry with Geelani. I was told to speak to Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who was then chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
“But Mufti Saheb refused to put Geelani behind bars, saying he would not like to make a martyr out of him. Mufti wanted to deal with him politically, therefore I informed Brajesh Mishra (then National Security Adviser) that Mufti won’t do it,” AS Dulat, former chief of Research and Analysis Wing and also an adviser on Kashmir to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said.
{{/usCountry}}“But Mufti Saheb refused to put Geelani behind bars, saying he would not like to make a martyr out of him. Mufti wanted to deal with him politically, therefore I informed Brajesh Mishra (then National Security Adviser) that Mufti won’t do it,” AS Dulat, former chief of Research and Analysis Wing and also an adviser on Kashmir to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said.
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