Mumbai-based hawala operators, NGOs supporting terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir: Sources

Intelligence agencies have received information about the involvement of some Mumbai-based hawala operators and NGOs in the Jammu and Kashmir terror funding case. Sources told Zee Media that intelligence agencies are closely monitoring the activities of three hawala operators and two NGOs who are suspected to be involved in funding terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

Intelligence agencies are of the view that these NGOs are collecting funds in the name of Zakat from Mumbai and nearby areas, and then route these funds to separatists and other anti-national elements in Jammu and Kashmir. Sources claim that the intelligence agencies also suspect that the funds collected by these agencies from outside India are also routed to Jammu and Kashmir to support terror activities.

The intelligence agencies have also got inputs that three hawala operators in South Mumbai are in touch with some businessmen who have opened up dummy companies in order to bring money from Pakistan, Dubai, Malaysia and some other countries to Mumbai through banks. Once the money comes to Mumbai then it is sent to Jammu and Kashmir via train using the hawala network. According to intelligence agencies, the funds collected by these NGOs are used to create unrest and support anti-India activities in Kashmir valley.

Sources say that intelligence agencies are trying to gather more evidence in this regard and it is expected that they would soon share the evidence with the Home Ministry. It is to be noted that several separatists leaders arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with terror funding have accepted during interrogation that they had received money from Pakistan and other countries to support terror activities in Kashmir valley.

The NIA, which is probing the Jammu and Kashmir terror funding case, had said on Sunday that Dukhtaran-e-Millathad chief Asiya Andrabi had confessed during interrogation that she had been collecting funds and donations from foreign sources to organise protests by Muslim women in the state.

The NIA also added that Andrabi made the confessions after she was confronted with evidence regarding the funding of educational expenses of her son in Malaysia from 2011 onward through foreign remittances made by Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali. It is to be noted that Watali is currently behind bars in connection with a terror funding case. According to NIA, Andrabi has close contacts with Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafeez Saeed.

The NIA also said on Sunday that Masarat Alam, who is also currently in jail in the terror funding case, had revealed during interrogation that agents based in Pakistan route the funds through hawala operators which were transferred to separatist leaders including veteran Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Shah Gilani.