NIA arrests 7 including Geelani's son-in-law

Seven people including Altaf Ahmed Shah, the son-in-law of hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, were arrested on Monday by the NIA in connection with its probe into the funding of terror and subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley, officials said.

Shah, popularly known as Altaf Fantoosh, was in the custody of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, who had put him in preventive detention immediately after the festival of Eid earlier this month.

Besides him, Geelani's close aides Tehreek-e-Hurriyat spokesman Ayaz Akbar and Peer Saifullah were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from the Valley, officials engaged in the operation said.

The NIA also arrested Shahid-ul-Islam, spokesman of the moderate Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, they said.

The others arrested are Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Nayeem Khan (of the Hurriyat's Geelani faction) and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias 'Bitta Karate', they said.

The houses of those arrested had been raided by NIA sleuths last month.

Shah is perceived as an influential force in the Tehrek- e-Hurriyat.