The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed a chargesheet against six senior leaders of the Hurriyat Conference in connection with a 1996 case involving mob violence, attacks on police personnel, and an alleged criminal conspiracy during a funeral procession in Srinagar.
The chargesheet was filed before the NIA Special Court in Jammu in connection with a case that was originally registered at Police Station Shergarhi, Srinagar, following the violence that erupted on July 17, 1996, during the funeral procession of slain militant Hilal Ahmad Beigh.
According to the NIA, those named in the chargesheet are Shabir Ahmad Shah, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Abdul Ganie Lone, Mohd. Yaqoob Wakeel alias Mohd. Yaqoob Vakil, Javid Ahmad Mir, and Shakeel Ahmad Bakshi.
The accused have been booked under various provisions of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), 1989, including criminal conspiracy, attempt to murder, rioting, and assault on public servants, besides Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
The agency stated that proceedings against Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Abdul Ganie Lone, and Mohd. Yaqoob Wakeel have abated following their deaths during the course of the proceedings. However, the chargesheet reportedly details their alleged roles in the conspiracy and the unlawful assembly, supported by evidence collected during the investigation.
According to the NIA, its investigation revealed that the six Hurriyat leaders had allegedly led an unlawful assembly during the funeral procession and incited large-scale violence against police personnel at Naaz Crossing in Srinagar. The agency further alleged that armed militants had mingled with the procession and opened indiscriminate fire at police personnel, injuring several police officials, while government vehicles were also damaged during heavy stone-pelting.
The investigation further alleged that the accused raised anti-India, pro-Pakistan, and secessionist slogans and delivered inflammatory speeches advocating armed struggle.
The NIA said its probe established that the violence was part of a larger, pre-planned criminal conspiracy aimed at using the funeral procession as a platform to propagate separatist ideology, mobilise public support against the Government of India, provoke public disorder, incite violence against law enforcement agencies, and demonstrate the organisational strength of the Hurriyat Conference in Jammu and Kashmir.
The case, registered as RC-01/2026/NIA/JMU, was taken over by the NIA in April 2026 on the directions of the Ministry of Home Affairs after initially being investigated by the Jammu and Kashmir Police.
The anti-terror agency said further investigation into the case is underway.
Shabir Shah already in jail in terror funding case
Lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, Shabir Shah was arrested on July 25, 2017, in a case in which the Special Cell of the Delhi Police had earlier arrested his close aide, Aslam Wani. He was taken into custody in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged terror financing that dates back more than a decade.
A Delhi court had issued a non-bailable warrant against the separatist leader in 2017. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had issued several summons to Shah over the years in connection with the August 2005 case, in which the Delhi Police’s Special Cell had arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani (35), an alleged hawala dealer, who had claimed that he passed on Rs 2.25 crore to Shah.
The ED had registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Shah and Wani. Wani was allegedly arrested with Rs 63 lakh, which investigators claimed he had received through hawala channels from the Middle East in 2005.
The Enforcement Directorate also named Shabir Shah’s wife, Dr Bilquis Shah, as an accused in the same case. She was named in the agency’s supplementary chargesheet filed in 2020.
According to the chargesheet filed by the ED in 2020, Bilquis Shah, along with Shabir Shah, had allegedly received Rs 2.08 crore from Aslam Wani.
The agency said its claim was based on Wani’s disclosure, in which he allegedly admitted that “all amounts were in cash and were handed over to Shabir Ahmad Shah and on three occasions to Dr Bilquis Shah.”
The ED alleged that Bilquis Shah received the money despite knowing that her husband had no known source of income and that the funds could not have been obtained through lawful means.
However, on October 29, 2021, she was granted bail in the same case. The court granted her bail on a bond of Rs 50,000 with two sureties of the like amount.
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