NIA Questions Greater Kashmir Editor Over Articles In Newspaper

Fayaz Kaloo was reportedly asked about pieces published after Burhan Wani’s killing.

New Delhi: In a first of its kind development, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been questioning the editor-in-chief of a prominent daily from Kashmir, Greater Kashmir, for over a week about some of the articles published in his newspaper.

The editor is being questioned about pieces that appeared in his newspaper during the agitation in 2016 after Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter, PTI quoted officials as saying.

Though the news agency refrained from identifying the newspaper or the editor by name, The Wire can report that the editor concerned is Fayaz Kaloo.

He was also reportedly asked about his trips abroad, including to Dubai.

The NIA’s exertions are linked to a wider case related to the funding of separatist organisations in Jammu and Kashmir – a key person arrested in this regard is businessman Zahoor Watali – though it is not clear why the anti-terror agency should show interest in the editorial content of a newspaper.

A well known media and business personality, Kaloo is the president of the Kashmir Editors Guild.

Earlier, the general manager of Greater Kashmir was summoned and questioned by the NIA.

The NIA has also summoned Anees-ul-Islam, grandson of separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, to appear before it on July 9.

Anees’s father, Altaf Shah, alias ‘Fantoosh’ is Geelani’s son-in-law, and has been in Tihar jail for over a year now.

The NIA has said its probe seeks to identify the chain of players behind the financing of terrorist activities, stone pelting on security forces, burning down of schools and damaging of government establishments.

The case names Hafiz Saeed, the Pakistan-based chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawah, a front for the banned Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, as an accused.

It also names organisations such as the Hurriyat Conference factions led by Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the Hizbul Mujahideen and the Dukhtaran-e-Millat.

(The Wire)