Officials said today that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested a Kashmiri journalist in what they say is a case of an NGO funding terrorism.
In a statement, an NIA spokesman said, “Irfan Mehraj was arrested in Srinagar (J&K) on March 20, 2023, after the National Investigation Agency did a thorough investigation into the NGO Terror Funding case, which was filed in October 2020.”
He said that Irfan Mehraj was close to Khurram Parvez and worked for his group, the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Societies (JKCCS).
“Investigations showed that the JKCCS was funding terror in the valley and spreading secessionist ideas in the valley under the guise of protecting human rights,” the statement said.
“In this case, it is being looked into whether or not some Valley-based NGOs, Trusts, and Societies helped pay for terrorist activities.”
According to the statement, some NGOs, both registered and unregistered, have been found to be taking money from people in the U.S. and other countries under the guise of doing charity and other good works, such as Public Health, Education, etc. “But some of these groups have ties to banned terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), and others,” the report said.
