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JRL calls for a shutdown on Tuesday against arrests of Hurriyat leaders

Srinagar:  The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik have given a call for complete strike/shutdown tomorrow on July 25 to protest the ‘revengeful arbitrary and illegal arrests’ of Hurriyat leaders.

“Kashmir will remain ‘bandh’ on July 25”, leaders of joint resistance leadership Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Faroooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik, said, in wake of the arrests by National Investigation Agency (NIA) of Hurriyat leaders, Nayeem Khan, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias ‘Bitta karate’, Altaf Ahmed Shah, Shahidul Islam, Ayaz Akbar, Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Peer Saifullah in Srinagar today.

The joint leadership has called for a complete strike on Tuesday after NIA conducted raids in Srinagar, Jammu, Delhi and Haryana and reportedly seized incriminating evidence against those involved in receiving, acting as intermediaries and final beneficiaries of funds. The raid was followed by the arrest of seven Hurriyat leaders.

Speaking to IANS, a news agency, Jammu and Kashmir Police sources in Srinagar and an NIA official in Delhi identified the seven as Nayeem Khan, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Shahidul Islam who is a close aide and media advisor of Umar Farooq, Ayaz Akbar who is the spokesperson for the Geelani-led Hurriyat, mehrajuddin Kalwal and Peer Saifullah.

‘Karate’ arrest was made in Delhi while others were made from Srinagar who would be taken to Delhi, officials said. The arrests of these leaders were made on the charges of allegedly receiving funds from abroad to sponsor stone-pelting protests in the Kashmir Valley.

On June 29, the NIA had declared the case “as good as closed”.

The agency has found that all transactions through these bank accounts were legitimate and not connected in any way to terror funding.

“No evidence of terror funding or financial aid to stone-pelters has been found in that case. All bank accounts that were brought under the scanner have been found to have had legitimate business transactions. That case is as good as closed,” a senior NIA had officer said.

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