Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 19: In a major success, police today established that militancy was being funded from Saudi Arabia utilising several money transfer channels and arrested a surrendered militant, who had so far distributed about Rs 12 lakh among the militants of Jammu and Kashmir.
The former militant, who had also been earlier detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA) and was arrested today from Thanna Mandi by the police, has been identified as Qaiser Sajjad Mir, 35, son of GA Mir, a resident of Thanna Mandi and vice chairman of Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM), a separatist outfit and a constituent of moderate Hurriyat Conference ground headed by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq.
SSP Rajouri Mubassir Latifi said after the arrest of JKPM district president Farooq Ahmad Khan alias Farooq Dullia, a resident of Surankot at Thanna Mandi a day before along with Rs 95,000 worth hawala money, police started investigations in the case and quizzed Dullia to ascertain the sources of hawala money and the persons to whom it was to be delivered.
Dullia spilled the beans during the questioning and revealed that the first militant of Surankote GA Mir, who was now ailing, was instrumental in running the racket of hawala in Surankote to fund the militancy in the State.
Mir had crossed over to Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in 1990 and returned in 1991 after arms training. He was arrested and remained in different jails including Satna jail of Madhya Pradesh till 1994 when he was released. However, he continued his activities and floated JKPM, a separatist outfit, which aligned with Hurriyat Conference (M) after the split.
GA Mir and his son Qaiser Sajjad Mir had received about Rs 12 lakh worth hawala money through Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other foreign countries in their State Bank of India (SBI) account in Surankote and a private Money Transfer bank over the past few years.
The father-son duo used to withdraw the amount, keep a part of it with them and handed over rest of the amount to the militants and the separatists for funding militancy in the State, Mr Latifi said, adding that since GA Mir was now sick, his son, Qaiser Sajjad Mir was handling most of the operations along with Farooq Dullia, both of whom have been arrested and booked under various provisions of anti-militancy and anti-terror funding.
Dr Majeed Malik, a militant from Rajouri now settled in Pakistan was heading JKPM in the neighbouring country and was also instrumental in sending the funds from Gulf and other nations to the separatists and militants in Jammu and Kashmir, sources said.
Sources said that like GA Mir, his son Qaiser was also a former militant and had served the PSA.
“This indicated that the surrendered militants haven’t given up the militancy completely and were working for the militants under the garb of separatists,’’ the added.
They said Farooq Dullia and Qaiser Sajjad Mir were being questioned to ascertain identity of the persons, who had been paid hawala money so far by them. Further investigations in the case were in progress.
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