NGO terror-funding case: NIA arrests Khuram Parvez’s associate in Srinagar

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Tuesday said it arrested Irfan Mehraj, a close associate of Khurram Parvez, jailed since November 2021 on “terrorism” charges in NGO ‘terror-funding’ case.

A spokesperson of the NIA said following comprehensive investigations into the case registered in October 2020, it arrested Irfan Mehraj from Srinagar on Monday.

“He (Mehraj) was a close associate of Khurram Parvez and was working with his organization, Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Societies (JKCCS). Investigation revealed that the JKCCS was funding terror activities in the Valley and had also been in the propagation of a secessionist agenda in the Valley under the garb of protection of human rights,” he said.

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The NIA probe reveals that involvement of some Valley-based NGOs, trusts and societies in funding of terror related activities are being probed in this case.

“Some NGOs, both registered as well as unregistered, have come to notice collecting funds domestically and abroad under the cover of doing charity and various welfare activities, including Public Health, Education etc. But some of these organisations have developed links with proscribed terrorist organizations, such as Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) etc,” the NIA probe reveals.

The Linkedin profile of Mehraj, a resident of Mehjoor Nagar in Srinagar reads: “I am an independent journalist and researcher based in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir (India). My work has appeared in TRT World, Indian Express, The Caravan, Kashmir Life, Kashmir Reader, Greater Kashmir among others.”

Mehraj reportedly was the founding editor of now defunct ‘Wande Magazine’- an online news portal, which has not been updated since January 1, 2022.

Last week for the first time in the over three decades of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, an NIA court in Jammu framed charges against a journalist and a Kashmir University scholar in a sedition case, registered by the State Investigation Agency (SIA) following the publication of an article.

The scholar, Abdul Ala Fazili, had written an article titled “The shackles of slavery will break” and the journalist, Fahad Shah, published it in The Kashmir Walla, the digital magazine where he is editor-in-chief. Both were arrested following the registration of a case by the CIJ police station on April 4, 2022.