A court here on Wednesday sent Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin's son Syed Shahid, arrested in a six-year-old terror funding case, to judicial custody till November 27.
Shahid, 42, a Jammu and Kashmir government employee, was arrested on October 24 after he was called for questioning at the National Investigation Agency (NIA) headquarters here. He was remanded in seven day NIA custody last week.
He was presented before District Judge Poonam Bamba, who during the in-camera proceedings remanded him to judicial custody as the NIA did not seek his further custody.
The agency alleged that Shahid was collecting funds from Aijaz Bhat, a Srinagar resident now based in Saudi Arabia and a Hizbul Mujahideen militant, on the direction of his father Salahuddin, who is known to be living in Pakistan.
The NIA said Shahid was one of Bhat's several contacts who were in telephonic touch to "receive the money transfer codes". The money was meant to fund Hizbul Mujahideen's militant activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
Shahid, who lives with his family in Soibugh village in Budgam district, works as a Village Agricultural Assistant in Agriculture Department. His contractual job was confirmed by the government in March.
Shahid is the third son of Salahuddin, who also heads the United Jehad Council, the amalgam of Kashmir militant groups based in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan.
The 2011 terror funding case pertains to money sent through 'hawala' channels by militants based in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to Jammu and Kashmir.
The NIA had filed two chargesheets against six accused in the case in 2011.
Four of them -- Ghulam Mohammed Bhat, a close aide of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mohammed Sidiq Ganai, Ghulam Jeelani Liloo and Farooq Ahmad Dagga are currently lodged in Delhi's Tihar Central Jail.
Two accused, Mohammad Maqbool Pandit and Aijaz Bhat, are on the run and have been declared Proclaimed Offenders. Pandit, like Aijaz Bhat, has been an active Hizbul Mujahideen militant and is currently based in Pakistan.
Aijaz Bhat, according to NIA records, received arms training with the Hizbul Mujahideen in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in early 1990s.
--IANS
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