NIA probes phone with terror-linked contacts in TRF funding probe

NIA's probe into TRF funding reveals key suspect Yasir Hayat's phone with 450 contacts linked to 87 cases, including terror financing from abroad.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), in its larger probe into the funding of terrorist outfit The Resistance Front (TRF), has come across a Srinagar-based individual’s mobile phone that has over 450 contact numbers, including of those involved in over 80 cases being investigated by the federal agency since 2011, people familiar with the development said.

NIA on August 13 said it had “uncovered a foreign trail of funds, which is being probed extensively.”

The suspect, identified as Yasir Hayat, was in touch with a suspected Malaysia-based handler Sajad Ahmed Mir as well as two Pakistani numbers, officials said, adding Hayat “had also travelled to Malaysia”.

HT reported in June that NIA is conducting a larger probe into the funding of TRF — a proxy of proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) — which was also involved in the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 lives.

The federal agency arrested Hayat and another person, Shafat Maqbool Wani, as part of its TRF funding probe and also carried out raids at multiple places across Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) earlier this month.

“Yasir Hayat, a resident of Srinagar, is turning out to be a key link in TRF members based in the Valley receiving funds from abroad. The CDR (call details record) analysis of his phone has revealed some 463 contacts, which are involved in 87 cases of NIA since 2011. Some of these cases are linked to hawala transactions and LeT’s previous anti-national activities in J&K,” an officer said, requesting anonymity.

Hayat was in touch with one Sajad Ahmed Mir of Malaysia, who instructed him to give terror funds to the tune of around ₹2 lakh to Shafat Wani, the officer said. “During a trip to Malaysia, Hayat was also in touch with two Pakistani numbers,” the officer said, without divulging the travel date. It is suspected that Wani had received a total of ₹9 lakh terror funds, including from other channels.

“All these 463 contacts and those linked with these 87 cases are being verified to get further information about TRF’s funding network,” a second officer said, also declining to be named.

Besides Hayat, the NIA probe “has also found that Shafat Wani too had travelled to Malaysia on the pretext of attending a conference or a workshop on behalf of a university,” the second officer said, refusing to name the institution. “However, the university has informed us it never sponsored Wani’s visit or sent him on his behalf to Malaysia.”

In a statement on its probe into TRF’s funding, the federal agency on August 13 said it had “uncovered a foreign trail of funds, which is being probed extensively.”

TRF claimed responsibility within hours of the Pahalgam terror attack but later tried to disassociate itself from the ghastly killings as global condemnation mounted. Indian agencies have said TRF is nothing but a name Pakistan uses for LeT, designated as a terrorist outfit by the United Nations, to avoid international sanctions.

Over the last three years, TRF has claimed responsibility for several attacks on civilians in J&K. Security agencies have said the outfit was also behind the June 2021 twin-drone attacks on the Indian Air Force (IAF) station in Jammu. The ministry of home affairs (MHA) banned it in January 2023 under the UAPA. Its commander, Sajjad Gul, was also declared an individual terrorist in 2022.