Tip of the iceberg

Sealing the property of a senior separatist leader in Chhanpora, Srinagar on allegation of involvement in funding the Hizbul-Mujahideen militant outfit has invited more scorn than appreciation. One cannot help laughing at the tragically belated, half-hearted and ill-advised action against one with alleged involvement in funding militancy through hawala source. Hawala tantrum surfaced almost along with the emergence of militancy in 1990. It is common sense that armed insurgency cannot survive two decades unless it has sound and regular inflow of undisclosed money from undisclosed sources to undisclosed destination. For twenty-two years —- the life of insurgency in Kashmir —- our intelligence establishments with huge manpower and large scale infrastructure could not trace and identify hawala conduits. Who knows, they might have got close to the culprits but decided to play the ball.
A large number of emigrants including students, especially to Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, the US, Europe and Australia, have been raising huge funds in the name of support to the “victims of human rights abuses by the Army and security forces” in Kashmir. Fund raisers are rabid sympathizers of militancy in Kashmir. Their fund raising campaigns are carried out publicly and under the nose of the police and intelligence agencies of respective countries. Appeals for liberal donations are made through print and electronic media and huge banners and fictitious photographs are displayed in public places showing policemen beating up, dragging or hitting demonstrating crowds. Home country authorities did not forbid them conducting defamatory campaigns. In UK with large presence of emigrants from Pakistan and PoK, India-maligning and Kashmir fund raising campaigns were carried out in the cities of Luton, Birmingham, Leeds and London. In some of the Gulf countries, these activities even received official favour. Thus the organizers, donors, sympathizers and manipulators, all combined to form a nexus that found committed conduits for transfer of enormous funds to the separatist organizations operating in Kashmir. This is how hawala conduits came into being with a wide but underground network throughout the country.
The question is what were the Indian missions in these countries doing to draw the attention of local governments to prevent anti-India campaign and fund raising for a fabricated cause? Obviously, our missions in these countries were either not at all informed of what was brewing under their very nose or were just soft pedalling with it, or maybe, were partly accomplices in these designs. Anything can be surmised. Had they been moving out of their luxurious rooms and had they even the smallest spark of patriotism within their bosoms, they would have certainly got these subversive ventures nipped in the bud. So let us accept the fact that we were responsible for encouraging hawala which has now turned into a monster and is looking at us with eyeball to eyeball stance.
We may recall that during past two decades, news of hawala transactions trickled down intermittently. Sometimes even banner line reports informed public that a major breakthrough had been made in dismantling hawala structure. With loud promises by authorities of going to the roots of the hawala case, it was gradually and imperceptibly left to get dissolved and forgotten. People were given ample space to speculate corruption among investigating agencies. Even authorities are reported to have known about sections of investigating paraphernalia compromising with hawala racketeers. The net result was that militants, separatists and subversives all had a free day. Sadists went to the length of saying that the Government was covertly allowing clandestine transactions of hawala to continue because many in the Government with political clout greased their palms.
The reaction to the incident of police attaching the property of one Ghulam Muhammad Khan Sopori, the chairman of Peoples’ League residing at Chhanpora, and also of the Lones of Wagub, Sopore is that there must be some deep-seated personal vendetta behind the episode. This is perhaps the first case of its kind where property is attached. What happened to all those cases that surfaced and were reported during past two decades? Neither the police authorities nor the Government ever came out with details of hawala cases, people involved or the amounts transacted. This entire chapter has remained wrapped in mystery. As such, unmasking of Sopori case gives rise to deepened mystery and ambiguity. Evidently in this bizarre episode there is more than what meets the eye. What is revealed in this news item is actually the tip of the iceberg. If the government really and seriously means to uproot the widespread of tentacles of hawala menace, it must make public all hawala cases brought to its notice during past two decades, pursue them vigorously and bring them to book. Perhaps the Government lacks determination to do all that. This is not going to happen and soon the Ghulam Muhammad Khan Sopori case will be forgotten and consigned to the dust bin.

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