NIA probe against Waheed Para opens Pandora’s box for PDP

Source : The Week

Waheed Ur Rehman Para | Official Facebook account

The NIA’s latest findings into the alleged role of a PDP leader in a terror funding case can unravel the larger conspiracy that triggered one of the worst phases of violence in the Kashmir valley. The allegations include lending support to slain Pakistani terrorists, Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Abu Dujana and senior commander Naveed Jatt, who were allegedly involved in killing veteran journalist Shujaat Bukhari in 2018.

Waheed Ur Rehman Para, a close confidant of PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, was recently accused by the NIA of being a crucial player in sustaining the ”political-separatist-terrorist nexus” in Jammu and Kashmir. The charges slapped against Para have opened a Pandora’s box for the PDP, which calls it a political conspiracy.

The developments surrounding Para’s role are being closely watched by security experts.

Sources said the charges slapped against Para can help unravel the political conspiracy behind the violence in 2016, the year Burhan Wani, the popular Hizbul commander, was killed in a gunfight by security agencies.

“The NIA’s charges against Para are significant to substantiate the role of political leaders in the violence witnessed in the valley after the Burhan Wani killing,” said a counter-terrorism official. If the NIA is able to substantiate these charges in court, it can be a final blow to Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP, which is already in political isolation, said a government official.

Wani was killed in July 2016. His death not only resulted in widespread protests and killings in the valley, but also strained the PDP-BJP ties that finally ended their alliance after two years when the Centre resumed anti-terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

The NIA recently filed a supplementary charge-sheet in a Jammu court in a terror funding case, which involves deputy superintendent of police Davender Singh. The charge-sheet named three persons—Shaheen Ahmad Lone, Tafazul Hussain Parimoo and Waheed Ur Rahman Para—as accused under various sections of the stringent anti-terror law.

While the first two persons named in the charge-sheet have been accused of gun running from across the LoC for militants of banned terror outfits like Hizb ul Mujahideen and LeT, NIA’s findings into Para’s role are significant.

In its charge-sheet, the Central agency has made a list of damning charges. It said Dujana was given Rs 10 lakh and logistical support was given to both Dujana and Jatt even as Rs 5 crore was given to another arrested separatist leader, Altaf Ahmad Shah alias Altaf Fantoosh, who was part of the hard-line faction of Hurriyat Conference, to keep the situation boiling in Kashmir valley.

The NIA also accused Para of being part of a conspiracy hatched by Hizbul Mujahideen to make inroads into important institutions and entities to create support to carry forward the agenda of secession of Jammu and Kashmir by violence. He was allegedly using his vehicle for gun-running from Kupwara to south Kashmir and taking help of co-accused Irfan Shafi Mir and Naveed Mushtaq to assist party workers campaigning for election in Pulwama district.

However, Para’s counsel has termed the NIA case as a political conspiracy against the political leader, who won the District Development Council polls from Pulwama.