Militant Kashmiri insurgents led by Sayyid Yusuf Shah alias Salahudin (after the famous Salahudin Ayyubi of Crusades fame) formed the terrorist group Hizbul Mujahideen in Muzaffarabad. In collaboration with the Pakistani spy agency ISI, he made Muzaffarabad the place for establishing training camps for Kashmiri youth in terrorism and subversion in the valley.
Born in Budgam, Kashmir, Muhammad Yusuf Shah alias Salahudin, is the 66-year-old supreme commander is also chairman of the United Jehad Council in Pakistan. He had contested state assembly elections in 1987, and was arrested for protesting that the polls were rigged.
After his release in 1989, he crossed over to PoK and founded Hizbul Mujahideen which has sent cadres into J&K to fight security forces.
Militancy and terrorism need huge funds to run its wheels. Knowing that remitting funds to insurgents in Kashmir directly would be impossible and blatant contravention of international laws, the ISI used the conduit of Salahudin for transfer of enormous funds to Kashmir militants. For this purpose they together formed a fake organization named Jammu and Kashmir Affectees Relief Trust (JKART) operated by Salahudin & Co. JKART has its head office in Rawalpindi and branches in Islamabad. The trust pretended to be transferring monetary assistance to the relatives of those killed by the insurgents in their battles with Indian security forces. How many of such affected families received funding from the JKART is not clear. But it is known to the concerned agencies on our side who were the conduits and how much money has been transferred exclusively for perpetuation of insurgency operations. The NIA kept a trail and finally has come out with Government’s action on clandestine funding and fake transfers.
On 19 August 2012, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had put Salahudin on its wanted list. The step to declare Salahudin a ‘proclaimed offender’ was taken after a nearly year-long investigation by the NIA, which revealed that the Hizbul Mujahideen chief was backing a charitable organization in Pakistan, named the Jammu & Kashmir Affectees Relief Trust (JKART) formed in 1990.
It was given out that the organization was for running refugee camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for Kashmiris who crossed over to Pakistan after militancy broke out in J&K in the 1990s. But actually it has been channeling money through hawala and human couriers to their conduits in the Indian part of Jammu and Kashmir. The NIA probe shows Salahudin has also used JKART as a front to fund terror activities in Pulwama, Kupwara, Sopore, Budgam, Doda, Baramula and Srinagar. The investigation into this particular case — – lodged on September 7, 2011 — shows Salahudin pumped in Rs 80 crore into J&K in the last two years for terror activities.
Though Salahudin has a Red Corner Notice pending against him since 1998, India wants to create fresh pressure on Pakistan by declaring Salahudin a wanted accused in the present case and also clamp down on the activities of JKART.
In the process, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has now charge-sheeted Sayyid Salahudin along with nine other top militant commanders and head of a Pakistan based charity organization for funding militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.
The charge-sheet was filed in the NIA Special Court, Patiala House, New Delhi against ten accused persons belonging to the HM. Besides the chief, it includes his deputy Ghulam Nabi Khan alias Amir Khan, who hails from Anantnag district and all are now based in Pakistan. Besides them, Amir Khan’s Deputy, Khursheed Ahmad, former divisional commander of HM Shaheen and another HM militant Shabir Elahi were also charge-sheeted by the NIA. In all ten including Salahudin have been charge-sheeted by the NIA for raising and transferring funds for insurgency activities in India. Out of the 10 persons charge sheeted today, two — Dr Dawood and Lali — are in the NIA custody while eight including HM chief, Sayyid Salahudin have been declared as proclaimed offenders by the court.
NIA, during the investigation, established the flow of funds raised and distributed by the HM. In the charge sheet it mentioned various channels used to send funds to HM including hawala, banking network, cross border trade etc. The NIA has found that Dr Dawood collected Rs 13 crore and distributed it for carrying out militancy. According to a report a hefty sum of 600 crore rupees have been raised and provided to militancy related operations in J&K ever since the eruption of insurgency in Kashmir. Pakistan has proved its word that it would render all sorts of help to insurgency in Kashmir. Allowing the terrorists to establish training camps in PoK, actively supporting them in raising the funds, conniving at transfer of funds through clandestine means from Pakistan to India and specifically using the funds for fanning flames of insurgency that lead to the killing of thousands of Kashmiris are the offences committed by Salahudin and his cohorts for which the Government of India holds them responsible and would bring them to book.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel