New Delhi

Waheed-ur-Parra, a leader of the Mehbooba Mufti-led People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who was earlier charged with paying Rs 10 lakh to the Hizbul Mujahideen as ‘election fund’ in lieu of support and guaranteed protection for his party’s candidates in Lok Sabha elections from in south Kashmir’s  Pulwama district, was part of a setup that helped pro-Pakistan terrorists raise funds for arms buying.

The money, he paid to Hizb, was handed over to former DySP, Devinder Singh, who in turn bought Ak-47s for the pro=Pakistan terror group from across the Line of control.

These findings form the basis of fresh charges filed by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) against Parra and two Hizbul Mujahideen over ground workers Shaheen Lone (arms dealer) and Tafazul Parimoo (financial manager) in the terror funding case in NIA court, Jammu.

Parra came under NIA’s radar after a chance arrest of two Hizbul terrorist by police in north Kashmir’s Pattan area. On sustained interrogation, they spilt the beans about receiving money bags from Parra via Devinder Singh in lieu of the pro-Pakistan terror outfit’s support for the candidates of the PDP.

A handout released by the NIA says, ‘Investigation has also revealed that charge-sheeted accused Waheed-ur-Rahman Para was part of the conspiracy for raising and transferring of terror funds to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) militants for procurement of terrorist hardware and was also a crucial player in sustaining political-separatist-terrorist nexus in J&K.”

Parra had joined PDP after quitting the National Conference led by Farooq Abdullah. He was handling the media cell of both parties.

Earlier charges were filed against Police officer Devinder Singh and seven others for collusion with terrorist outfits.

The NIA had sleuths had worked hard to trace the mobile calls between Parra and Devinder Singh and found that both were frequently in touch. Parra also used the Signal app for contacting Hizbul terrorists.

Interestingly, it turned out that the two spoke many times soon after the Pulwama attack in which a Kashmiri Hizbul  Mujahideen terrorist had rammed an explosive-laden car into the convey of the CRPF killing 44 personnel.

Parra was arrested in November, nine months after Devinder Singh’s arrest.

The charge sheet says Parra was instrumental in raising and transferring funds to HM for procurement of terror hardware. 

The charge sheet further reveals that Waheed Parra was a key player in sustaining the political-separatist-terrorist nexus in Jammu and Kashmir.

NIA filed a supplementary charge sheet against them under section 120B of the IPC, sections 17, 18, 38, 39 & 40 of the UA (P) Act, and section 25 (1AA) of Arms Act and section 6 of the Explosive Substances Act in NIA Special Court Jammu in Devender Singh Case ( RC-01/2020/NIA/JMU).

NIA charge sheet says the Investigation has revealed that charge-sheeted accused Shaheen Ahmad Lone and Tafazul Hussain Parimoo was involved in gun-running from across the LoC for the militants of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and Lashkar e Taiba and were also channelizing funds to the militants for sustaining terrorist activities in J&K at the behest of handlers located in Pakistan.

Investigation has also revealed that charge-sheeted accused Waheed-ur Rahman Para was part of the conspiracy for raising and transferring of terror funds to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) militants for procurement of terrorist hardware and was also a crucial player in sustaining political-separatist-terrorist nexus in J&K.

NIA told the court that investigation in the case are continuing.