Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 19: After registering a Preliminary Enquiry (PE), the National Investigating Agency (NIA) is all set to launch crackdown on terror funding in the Kashmir valley by the mentors of terrorists’ abroad using new kind of modus operandi to dodge the security and Intelligence agencies. The hawala money running into several crores has been pumped into the Valley so far, which was being used to fund the terrorism.
The Union Home Ministry had recently designated the NIA as Nodal Agency for investigations into entire terror funding in the Valley, which initially was being probed by multiple agencies like Enforcement Directorate, police and Intelligence wings of various security agencies.
Sources told the Excelsior that the Home Ministry has ordered crackdown to block all hawala channels in the Kashmir valley, which were being used to fund terrorism from abroad. After going through the reports of Intelligence agencies, the Ministry has given independent probe to the NIA.
“It has been discovered that instead of directly pumping the terror funds into the accounts of some separatists, terrorists, their Over Ground Workers (OGWs) or sympathizers, the funds were being routed through the bank accounts of ordinary citizens to keep police and Intelligence agencies in dark,’’ they said, adding this modus operandi was recently detected when Intelligence agencies detected huge banking transactions, which had been repeated after few months, in some accounts, whose holders were very ordinary people and had no relations abroad.
The account holders, who had received huge funds from abroad, couldn’t explain the receipt of huge amounts, when confronted by the Intelligence agencies and spilled the beans. Some of them, according to sources, had repeatedly received the funds from abroad within a gap of 2-3 or 5-6 months.
The account holders, who were ordinary citizens, running shops or other small business, revealed that the amount was being withdrawn by some unidentified persons from their accounts by taking blank cheques from them. The account holders were, however, given very small part of the funds for using their accounts.
Sources said this technique had been used in various parts of the Valley including rural areas and added that the cases tracked down by the agencies might just be tip of iceberg and there could be many persons, whose accounts might have been used to route hawala money to the terrorists and separatists for fuelling terrorism and other anti-national activities in the Valley.
While the fund recipients were not at all aware as to who deposited funds in their accounts and from which nations, they knew only the conduits, who had withdrawn the funds and not the real perpetrators of hawala channels, sources said, adding that this was the new technique used most likely by Pakistan army, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and activists of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and other terrorist outfits to fund terror activities in the Kashmir valley.
According to sources, some people working in the Gulf countries as ordinary workers, had been lured to allow their bank accounts in the Kashmir Valley to be used for funding terror activities. Some of the people, who had returned from the Gulf nations after working there for some time, had also been used to pump terror funds through their bank accounts.
Already, the cross-LoC trade from Uri-Muzaffarabad route of Kashmir is under scanner for terror funding. As the trade is based on barter system, the Intelligence agencies had reports that some businessmen had received excess goods from across the Line of Control (LoC) as compared to goods exported by them. The extra amount received by them through the excess goods had also been used for undesirable activities, sources said.
According to sources, amount running into several crores has been pumped into the Valley through hawala channels using different techniques for funding militancy and other anti-national activities.
The NIA has constituted a high level team, which comprised the cyber and financial experts to unearth entire terror funding in the Valley so far and suggest measures to curb it in future.
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