NIA gets Yasin Malik's custody till April 22

New Delhi:A Delhi court on Wednesday sent Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Yasin Malik to National Investigation Agency's (NIA) custody till April 22 in connection with a case related to the funding of terror and separatist groups in the state.

Additional Sessions Judge Rakesh Syal, during in-chamber proceedings, allowed the NIA to question Malik for 12 days.

The NIA on Wednesday arrested Malik, a day after he was shifted to Tihar Jail here from Jammu's Kot Balwal Jail. The anti-terror agency's move followed an order of a special NIA court in Jammu giving it go ahead for Malik's custodial interrogation, an official said.

Malik was brought here from Jammu on an Air India flight on Tuesday evening, the official said.

On March 7, Malik was booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA) and put in Jammu jail. Under the PSA, any person can be kept in detention for two years without any judicial intervention.

Malik has been facing two Central Bureau of Investigation cases and his organisation JKLF was banned last month by the Centre. These relate to the kidnapping of Rubaiya Saeed, daughter of then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, in 1989, and the killing of four IAF personnel in 1990.

The agency had registered the terror funding case in May 2017 after violence erupted in the Kashmir Valley.

So far, the agency has arrested several separatist leaders including Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah.

Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of Syed Ali Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan.

Shahid-ul-Islam is Farooq's aide and Khandey is the spokesperson for the Geelani-led Hurriyat. Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali was arrested in August 2017.

The anti-terror agency had on January 18, 2018 filed a charge sheet against 12 persons, including Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin.