Srinagar: Independent Jammu and Kashmir MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Rashid Engineer, has been summoned by the NIA for questioning in a case related to the funding of terror activities in the Valley, officials said on Thursday.
Rashid, who has been called for questioning on October 3, is the first mainstream politician to be summoned by the National Investigation Agency in the case, the officials said.
His name had cropped up during the interrogation of businessman Zahoor Watali, who was arrested by the NIA for allegedly supplying money to terror groups and separatists in the Valley.
Rashid, an independent MLA from Lagate in North Kashmir, has been denying any involvement in the case and has appealed to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly speaker to initiate an inquiry.
The NIA had registered a case on May 30 against separatist and secessionist leaders who have allegedly been conniving with active militants of proscribed terrorist organisations Hizbul Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Lashkar- e-Tayyabba (LeT) and other outfits and gangs, officials said.
The case was registered for raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, for funding separatist and terrorist activities and for causing disruption by way of pelting stones on the security forces, burning schools and waging war against India, the probe agency said.
