Posted on 03/26/2002 3:00:16 PM PST by knighthawk
The arrest of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Md Yaseen Malik on Monday has re-focussed attention on the foreign funding of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.
Police and intelligence agencies reckon that the largest recipient of foreign funds is the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), the 23-group separatist conglomerate. J&K Police have registered several FIRs charging senior Hurriyat leaders with receiving foreign monies through the hawala route, and some Rs 200 crore are believed to have been pumped into Kashmir from abroad in the dozen years of armed militancy. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are believed to be the primary sources of the funds, and separatist leaders have almost always returned loaded from Pak- and Iran-sponsored trips abroad.
In November 2001, police arrested half-a-dozen Srinagar and Baramulla businessmen on illegal money transfer charges. Since those raids, some Rs 1.25 crore has been recovered in foreign money.
In 1995, the Centre issued notices to 82 individuals and groups in the state, seeking details of funds received from abroad. Most didn't respond.
In 1996, the Income-Tax Department wrote to banks in the state, seeking details of accounts held by 16 top Hurriyat leaders. The next year, police stumbled upon the bank account of a vegetable vendor from where transactions worth over a crore had taken place. The vendor revealed the money belonged to Hurriyat leader Abdul Gani Lone, and police said it had reached the account through hawala.
This, however, is the first time that US dollars have been seized. Sources in Srinagar said the money was supposed to be a part of the Hurriyat's election funds. The Hurriyat last month formed its own election commission, independent of government control, to conduct polls in the state.
Allegations of "misappropriation of foreign funds" have in fact, emerged from within separatist ranks themselves.
Last year, a militant group called Al Barq had accused senior Hurriyat leader Abdul Gani Lone of misappropriating money given by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for the "movement". The Al Barq had reportedly threatened Lone, and there had been gunfire at his Srinagar home.
Similar charges had been brought against Shabir Shah by his former associate, Nayeem Khan. Shah, leader of the Democratic Freedom Party, had been a member of the Hurriyat till 1995.
A paper in the latest edition of Strategic Analysis, the official publication of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), reports that a senior Hurriyat leader receives Rs 300,000 every month.
The paper on Terrorist Financing and Support Structures in Jammu and Kashmir relies upon reports submitted by militant outfits to the Pakistan-based Shoura-e-Jehad to say that the Jamait-e-Islami received Rs 49 crore up to April 1997.
Intelligence agencies are aware that Jamait leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani received Rs 10 crore in October 1995. The Jamait's web site gives account numbers of a Lahore bank asking for donations for the 'Kashmir cause.'
The Karachi-based Al-Rashid Trust run by Jaish leader Maulana Masood Azhar, and the Markaz-ad-Dawa-wal-Irshad, mentor of the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, are estimated to pump $70-80 million annually into Kashmir.
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