SRINAGAR: Hurriyat (M) Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has decided to appear before National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday in New Delhi.
He will be accompanied by other Hurriyat leaders including Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Gani Lone, and Masroor Abbas Ansari and other members of the executive council.
In a statement Hurriyat has appealed masses to control emotions this juncture.
Giving details, Hurriyat (M) said the APHC executive members convened a meeting which included chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat, Bilal Ghani Lone, Masroor Abbas Ansari.
The meeting was held at the residence of Mirwaiz after the third summon was sent to him by NIA to come to New Delhi for questioning as witness.
The meeting strongly condemned the move and said that the Chairman was being deliberately harassed and there was an effort to criminalize leadership for their political stand.
They participants said that Hurriyat is a political coalition of political parties striving for the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue and to associate it with anything to do terror is ridiculous and deliberate victimization for our political ideology.
Hurriyat said it’s unfortunate that while they have always maintained that Kashmir is a political issue that needs resolution peacefully and humanely and always worked towards that end and walked the talk in that regard by welcoming and participating in every effort at dialogue between the stakeholders yet rulers of the day are resorting to such tactics to harass and intimidate them under the garb of legality.
Hurriyat said that despite having nothing to do with the matter yet the Mirwaiz through his legal council had said that he was ready to cooperate in the investigation but had asked the agency to hold it in Srinagar as he had several genuine concerns including serious security concerns in New Delhi.
Hurriyat (M) said that NIA has refused to conduct the investigation in Srinagar but said in the notice that it would take care of his security concern.
Hurriyat said that it is unfortunate that they did take into account the other concerns and are insisting on investigation in Delhi.
They said that the meeting decided that executive council members will all accompany Mirwaiz to New Delhi for the investigation.
Hurriyat said that they know that people are anguished and concerned for the Mirwaiz as their religious emotions are also attached to him as Mirwaiz-e-Kashmir, besides him being a representative of their political sentiments.
They said that they know that people are deeply anguished by the harassment of Mirwaiz , urging them to stay calm and peaceful .
They said that Mirwaiz or any member of Hurriyat has nothing to do with the so called funding case and it is sheer vindictiveness on the part of authorities.