Author:
Publication: The Daily Excelsior
Date: June 3, 2002
Under a clamp down on funding to
militant organisations, the Government agencies were scrutinising "some
businessmen" of Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi even as efforts were on to
put an "effective check" on hawala transactions from the United Kingdom.
Official sources said the accounts
of some of the businessmen were being scrutinised to check whether there
was an "unusual transaction" through their bank accounts.
The sources said help from the Reserve
Bank of India and other agencies like the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence
and Enforcement Directorate was also being sought in the operation.
The sources said that the move was
initiated after it was found that the ISI was using normal banking channels
to pump in money to sustain militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.
This was found after the arrest
of an editor of a local monthly magazine Intiaz Bazaz who had received
funds from a Kashmiri separatist leader Ayub Thakur through his London-based
NGO Mercy Universal, which claims to be engaged in humanitarian work.
Though Thakur has denied that the
money was meant for supporting the militant activities, the sources said
"that if there were no ill intentions, then the funding could have been
notified to the Reserve Bank of India."
The sources said that the case of
Bazaz was not an isolated one and that there was credible information that
some more businessmen from the State and national Capital were involved
in funding of militancy.
The sources said the new "business
channel" that came to light after the arrest of Bazaz had also exposed
Pakistan's designs in fanning the "fire of militancy" in the State without
coming into picture.
The matter about funding of militancy
from the United Kingdom was taken up by Union Home Minister L K Advani
with the visiting British foreign Secretary Jack Straw during his recent
visit.
With the authorities making every
effort to clamp down on funding of militancy, there were some reports suggesting
that militants in the State had now started resorting to "extortion" to
meet their daily needs.
The State administration alongwith
central agencies began their crackdown in the first week of December last
year and netted a whopping Rs 3.5 crore this year, the sources said.
"The exact ramifications of the
new funding were yet to be ascertained. We do not have much of expertise
here to deal with such an economic crime," says Inspector General of Kashmir
Range K Rajendra.
The earlier channel of sending money
through Kashmiri businessmen based in Dubai had also been exposed after
ISI was not able to route the money through Nepal into the country.
Confessions by various militants
have revealed that ISI and 'Tanzeems' governing some of the militant outfits
in Kashmir had started sending money to carpet dealers, who were mainly
of Kashmiri origin.
Originating from Pakistan, money
is routed through various channels to carpet dealers in Dubai who accommodate
this in their book of accounts by over-invoicing their business and showing
huge profit, they said.
The money is then sent to India
using hawala channel and any of the conduits of these militants would collect
it from a hawala operator after using a pre-fixed code, the sources said.
The carpet dealers have revealed
during their confession that it was easy money for them as they used to
have their share of commission (15 per cent for every lakh). Another share
of commission went to the hawala dealer who used to make the final delivery,
they added.
The Dubai connection of funding
came to light in March, 2000 when police intercepted one person at the
border of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab and recovered Rs 33 lakh from him,
which was meant for People's League, one of the constituents of Hurriyat
Conference, the sources said.
The actual problem of funding started
last year when the State police and intelligence sleuths gathered evidence
against some of the carpet dealers with their showrooms in Dubai as being
involved in the racket.
Some of these carpet dealers from
posh Lajpat Nagar area of South Delhi were questioned and their interrogation
threw more light on the caption of the Dubai channel of funding militancy
and separatist movement in the State, they said.
The reason why the ISI chose the
carpet owners was that some of them also doubled up as messengers between
militants and Hurriyat leaders. An example of this was found after the
arrest of a hawala dealer Afzal Safi Mir last month, who also acted as
a conduit between Hizbul Mujahideen supremo Syed Sallahuddin and firebrand
Jamaat-e-Islami leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the sources claimed. (PTI)
