Terror Funding Took Hawala Route: NIA

Terror funding took hawala route: NIA

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The NIA, probing terror funding cases in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday claimed that the poster boy of the 2010 unrest, Masarat Alam had revealed that there was a rift among the separatists regarding the collection and use of funds pumped through the ‘hawala route’.

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● In 2017, the NIA arrested Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmad Watali as one of the main suspects in the terror-funding probe.  The NIA then said that Watali is one of the main hawala conduits who used to generate and receive funds from Pakistan’s ISI and the UAE and had floated shell companies to disguise foreign remittances for further transfer to separatist leaders and stone-throwers. ● On May 30, 2017, the agency registered a case against terrorists belonging to Jamat-ud- Dawah, Duktaran-e-Millat, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and other separatist leaders in J&K for raising, receiving and collecting funds for “funding separatist and terrorist activities” and entering into a “larger conspiracy” for causing disruption in the Kashmir Valley and for “waging war against India.” ● During the investigation conducted so far, the NIA has charge-sheeted 13 accused including Hafiz Mohammad Saeed (leader of Jamat-ud-Dawah), Syed Salahuddin (head of proscribed organisation Hizb-ul-Mujahideen), seven second-rung separatist leaders, two hawala conduits and some stone-pelters. ● Earlier this month, NIA arrested separatist leaders, Yasin Malik, leader of proscribed organisation JKLF, Asiya Andrabi, leader of proscribed organisation Duktaran-e-Millat, separatist leader Shabir Shah of the JKDFP and Masarat Alam of the Muslim League regarding the terror funding case. ● During Interrogation, Masarat Alam, the “poster boy” of stone-throwers and violent agitations in the Valley, has revealed that Pakistan-based agents route the funds through hawala operators which were transferred to the separatist leaders including Syed Ali Shah Gilani, chairman, All Parties Hurriyat Conference ● However, there are rifts among the separatists regarding collection and use of funds pumped through the hawala route, the NIA said in a press statement on Sunday. ● During interrogation, Yasin Malik revealed that he was instrumental in bringing together the disparate factions of the Hurriyat Conference and formed the JRL, which spearheaded the violent agitations in 2016 in the Kashmir Valley by issuing ‘protest calendars’ leading to economic shutdown for over four months  According to the NIA, Yasin Malik confessed that the Joint Resistance Leadership and the Gilani faction of the Hurriyat Conference collected funds from the business community as well as certain other sources and ensured that economic shutdown and violent protests