OCCUPIED SRINAGAR: Rights groups including the United Nations have criticized the arrest of a prominent activist in Illegaly Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) on terror funding charges.

Khurram Parvez was arrested late on Monday by India's federal National Investigation Agency (NIA), an Indian official briefed on the situation told Reuters.

His residence and office were searched and a mobile phone, laptop and books seized, he added.

A spokesperson for the NIA confirmed Parvez's arrest on Tuesday.

He is being held under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, that allows for detention of up to six months without trial.

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His lawyer, Parvez Imroz, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, called Parvez's arrest "disturbing".

"He's not a terrorist, he's a human rights defender," she said in a tweet.

Parvez, one of Kashmir's best known activists, is head of Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, a group of rights organisations working in the occupied region.

He was arrested and detained on similar charges in 2016, after being prevented from boarding a flight to attend a UN human rights forum in Geneva.

He was eventually released without being convicted of any crime.

The Muslim-majority Kashmir region has been the source of decades of tensions between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan.

India has long faced allegations of rights abuses in its portion of the territory, charges New Delhi denies.