Kashmir raids evoke sharp reactions

Srinagar: The Income Tax (I-T) department has carried out numerous raids in the Kashmir valley, targeting traders and people linked to separatist organisations.  The latest target was Aga Syed Altaf, a close kin of former minister Imran Raza Ansari. Apart from this, several summons have been sent out to separatist organisations and the grandson of Syed Ali Shah Geelani has been summoned by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) this week issued summon to Shabir Shah’s daughter Sama Shabir in a 2005 money-laundering case. Sama Shabir, a law student in United Kingdom, was only five years old when the case was filed. All political organisations have expressed their concern over this and have labeled it as a case of harassment.

The NIA has been very active in the past few months in Kashmir in different cases, including that of money laundering by separatists. In one of such cases, former minister Altaf Bukhari was summoned by NIA and, according to media reports, his brother Tariq Bukhari was also investigated. It is in place to mention that the NIA has summoned Altaf Bukhari as they have been probing the money-laundering case of a businessman Nasir Shafi Mir who was arrested in New Delhi in 2006 from a vehicle of Bukhari. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was recently questioned by NIA at its New Delhi office and after him, Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s son Nayeem Geelani was also questioned. Now, the grandson of Syed Ali Shah Geelani has been summoned by NIA.

Recently, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs decided to suspend cross-border trade, after credible intelligence inputs were received that 10 Pakistan-based Kashmiri terrorists were using trade routes to illegally run drugs and explosives in the valley.