Ex-RAW chief claims India funded pro-independence Kashmiri leaders

Indian intelligence agencies have been paying pro-independence leaders and organisations in Indian Occupied Kashmir to lure them into supporting the Indian government, a former Indian spy chief claimed in a startling interview on Saturday.

"So what's wrong? What is there to be so shocked or scandalized by. It's done the world over," former RAW chief AS Dulat told an Indian TV channel.

The former RAW chief claimed he had been in touch with Kashmiri leader Syed Salahuddin, and alleged that the Indian government had paid for the air-fares, medical treatment and general upkeep of even pro-Pakistan Kashmiri leaders like Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Dulat’s lies ‘larger than the Himalayas’, says Syed Salahuddin

Responding to the allegations of receiving Indian funds, chief of the United Jihad Council Syed Salahuddin rejected Dulat’s claims, terming them lies ‘larger than the Himalayas’.

“Dulat has spoken a lie larger than the Himalayas. The reality is that the Kashmir movement is in motion and the popularity of the Hurriyat leadership is ever increasing,” he told Geo News.

Salahuddin said that Kashmiri leaders were not only been offered money but also positions by the Indian government, but that the Kashmiri leaders had rejected the offers.

Salahuddin also rejected the former RAW chief’s claims that the Kashmiri leader was willing to travel to India for negotiations.

He said that he has been involved in the Kashmir movement for over 28 years and that it was impossible that he would go to India for negotiations.

He said the lies were an attempt to damage the image of the Hurriyat leadership and hurt the cause of the independence movement in Kashmir.