Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Tuesday conducted raids at the residence of a business in Kashmir capital city Srinagar.

Reports said that NIA raided the residence of Fayaz Ahmad Mir at Lal Bazar today morning.

The NIA also raided the house of Mehraj ud din Mir of Ishber Nishat Srinagar.

NIA has raided at three places in Srinagar today and may be they will raid many more premises.

Official sources told UNI that security forces and state police cordoned off Lal Bazar area in the city outskirts early on Tuesday morning before a team of NIA raided the residence of businessman Fayaz Ahmad Mir.

Mir is the latest among the list of persons, mostly separatists and businessmen, whose residences were raided by the NIA in connection with terror funding in Kashmir.

Earlier this month, the investigation agency raided the residence of businessman Ajaz Ahmad Hakak at Nowhatta in downtown Srinagar on October 2.

It was alleged that separatists are receiving money through hawala and other sources for funding militancy and stone pelting. Those arrested so far included spokespersons of both the factions of the Hurriyat Conference (HC) Aiyaz Akbar and Advocate Shahidul Islam and two sons of Pakistan-administered-Kashmir (PaK) based United Jehad Council (UJC) chief Mohammad Yousuf Shah alias Syed Salahuddin.

However, the Delhi High Court on September 18, 2018 granted bail to Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali, who was arrested by the NIA for his alleged role in a terror-funding case involving Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) chief and 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

Watali was the third accused in an alleged funding case to be granted bail. Photojournalist Kamran Yousuf and a youth Javed Ahmad Bhat , a resident of Kulgam, both accused of stone pelting, were granted bail by the court earlier this year.

The NIA investigation started after a senior separatist leader Nayeem Ahmad Khan, chief of National Front (NF), admitted in a sting that separatists were receiving terror funds from different parts of the globe, particularly Pakistan and PaK. Khan was later suspended from the hardline HC after his admission.

The NIA made these arrests after conducting raids at over two dozen places in Kashmir, Jammu, Haryana and Delhi. Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) chief Shabir Ahmad Shah has also been arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) July 2017 in connection with money laundering case of 2015.