SRINAGAR: A 19-page chargesheet drawn up by CID’s Counter Intelligence Kashmir wing against arrested Mehbooba Mufti aide and PDP youth wing president Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra paints him as a ruthless politician who was willing to become an “asset” of Pakistan-based terror outfits in return for help in getting his party’s opponents out of the way.
The chargesheet, backed by the statements of five protected witnesses and technical intelligence, includes sheaves of annexures that detail his alleged attempts to eliminate political opponents.
It also mentions alleged payments to terror groups to “swing electoral battles” in PDP’s favour.
According to the chargesheet, which was submitted in the NIA, POTA and TADA courts in Srinagar, Parra’s 13-year journey as a journalist and politician was a “saga of subterfuge, deceit and double dealing”.
Parra joined PDP in 2013 and, “once ensconced in the safety of a recognised political party”, he “systematically went about strengthening himself by craftily deepening his roots on two sides of the divide – India and Pakistan”, the document states.
“Parra had the permission of the Pakistani establishment to keep throwing crumbs at India, allowing them petty tactical gains and systematically pushing the overall situation, slowly but surely, in favour of Pakistan in a strategic sense.” Sources said the PDP youth wing chief had been pleading for financial support from Pakistan to fight the court cases against terrorists from that country arrested in various states.
In 2007, he had visited Pakistan as a journalist and interviewed Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin for a media channel based in his native district of Pulwama in south Kashmir.
The chargesheet highlights his alleged links with Pakistan-trained terrorists Abu Dujana and Abu Qasim, both of whom were killed in encounters with security forces.
He would allegedly meet them frequently and maintain contact through overground workers.
The CID claims Parra even endorsed the forced marriage of a Pulwama girl to Dujana.
Contesting all the charges levelled against Parra during various court proceedings, his lawyer said he was being made a political scapegoat.
The PDP youth president won a seat in the first District Development Council elections last year even as he was in detention.
CID has sought the J&K home department’s sanction for Parra’s prosecution under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Based on “reliable and confidential sources”, the agency’s special Kashmir cell had filed a case last year against “unknown politicians and others” who were allegedly misusing their powers and helping terrorists.
In March, the NIA filed a chargesheet accusing the PDP youth leader of paying Rs 5 crore to the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat Conference functionary Syed Ali Shah Geelani for keeping Kashmir in turmoil after the killing of terrorist Burhan Wani in 2016.
The NIA accused Parra, arrested last November, of being involved with banned outfits like Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba.
He was granted bail by the NIA court in January this year on the ground that there was no reference to him in the original as well as the supplementary chargesheets submitted in July and October 2020 respectively.
Parra was subsequently arrested by CID and has been in jail since.
His last bail plea was rejected by the TADA court in Srinagar.