by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali
By Amiya Kumar Kushwaha,
New Delhi : Prominent Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, known to be close to Hurriyat leaders, used to show foreign remittances under “other income” in his proprietorship firm and pass on the funds to the separatists to fuel anti-India agenda in Jammu and Kashmir, according to the NIA.
“The secessionists depend heavily on the hawala network and conduits to bring money from offshore locations to India to fuel anti-India activities in Jammu and Kashmir,” said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) chargesheet which describes Watali as one of the conduits dealing with Hawala transactions.
The NIA has contended its allegation with incriminating documents recovered from the house of his cashier. The documents disclosed that Watali received funds from Pakistani establishment and terror organisation and transferred it to secessionists.
Watali was bringing money from offshore locations to India by layering it through scores of firms and companies.
On January 18, the NIA chargesheeted Pakistan-based terrorist leaders Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin, seven Kashmiri separatist leaders, Watali and two alleged stone pelters — Kamran and Javed Ahmed Bhat — in the case of terror funding in the Kashmir Valley.
The NIA alleged that the jailed separatist leaders conspired with Saeed and Salahuddin to wage war against India to secede Jammu and Kashmir and booked them under stringent anti-terror laws.
The separatists, arrested on July 24, 2017, are Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah.
Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan. Islam is a close aide of moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Khandey is the spokesperson for the Geelani-led Hurriyat.
The NIA, in its chargesheet, claimed that in an account of J&K bank, Watali received foreign remittance of Rs 93 lakh between 2011 and 2013 from unknown sources. The probe also revealed receiving of Rs 2.26 crore in different account from 2011 to 2016.
“During the course of investigation, it was also ascertained that Watali was showing foreign remittance under ‘other income’ in his proprietorship firm viz Trison International, Srinagar,” the chargesheet read.
The NIA has also cited other similar types of transactions and said all these foreign remittances are from unknown sources.
The probe also revealed a lease agreement signed between a UAE businessman and Watali in 2014.
United Arab Emirates businessmen Naval Kishore Kapoor entered an agreement with Trison Farms and Constructions through its Managing Director Watali to take land in Budgam on lease.
Kapoor remitted a total amount of Rs 5.579 crore in 22 instalments between 2013 and 2016 to Watali.
According to the NIA, the said land did not exist in the name of the company and the agreement lacks legal sanctity.
“This proves that the said agreement was a ‘cover’ created by Watali to bring foreign remittance from unknown sources to India.”
On the basis of documents seized from Watali which disclosed a list of ISI officials and a letter addressed to Pakistan High Commissioner recommending grant of visa to him, the NIA said this shows his proximity with Pakistani establishment.
(Amiya Kumar Kushwaha can be contacted at amiya.k@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : A chargesheet against seven Kashmiri separatists and a businessman in a case of funding terror in the Kashmir Valley will be filed by the NIA on Thursday, the day their judicial custody ends, officials said.
According to National Investigation Agency (NIA) sources, the agency will file the chargesheet against the arrested separatist leaders and a businessman under various sections of money laundering and waging war against country as the judicial custody ends on January 18.
A Delhi court on January 12 extended the judicial custody of the eight accused till January 18.
The eight have been charged with receiving funds from Pakistan to sponsor terror activities and stone-pelting in Jammu and Kashmir.
Kashmir was rocked by violent protests after Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani was killed in a gunfight with security forces on July 8, 2016.
An official of the agency said that they will be charged under various sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAP Act of 1967) and Indian Penal Code (IPC) including Section 121 Waging, or attempting to wage war against the state and Section 120 B entering into criminal conspiracy.
According to a senior official of the agency, the main chargesheet prepared by the NIA contains close to 50 pages and the annexure attached to the chargesheet, may run into nearly 5,000 pages.
On July 24, 2017, the NIA arrested seven of them — Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah — on charges of criminal conspiracy and waging war against India.
Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan. Islam is a close aide of moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Khandey is the spokesperson for the Geelani-led Hurriyat.
Businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, accused of acting as a conduit for channelling funds for separatists and terror activities in the Kashmir Valley, was arrested on August 17 last year.
He was allegedly collecting funds from Pakistan and banned terrorist organisations and transferring the same to Hurriyat leaders.
Watali is known to be friends with Pakistani leaders as well as separatists, besides leading politicians in Kashmir, the NIA said.
The NIA has filed a case against the separatist leaders on May 30 following a sting operation by a television channel after the Geelani-led Hurriyat suspended Nayeem Khan confessed that Hurriyat leaders had been receiving funds from Pakistan for subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley.
Hafeez Saeed, the Pakistan-based chief of the Jamaat-ul Dawah, the front of the banned Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), has been named in the FIR as an accused besides organisations such as the Hurriyat Conference (factions led by Geelani and Mirwaiz Farooq), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and Dukhtaran-e-Milat.
The NIA had questioned the arrested persons after the May 2017 expose. The counter-terror probe agency had also conducted raids in Srinagar, Jammu, Delhi and Haryana and reportedly seized incriminating evidence against those involved in receiving, acting as intermediaries and final beneficiaries of funds coming from Pakistan.
India has for decades accused Pakistan of arming, financing and training militants fighting to end Indian rule in Jammu and Kashmir. Islamabad says it provides only political and diplomatic support.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Srinagar : The mother of a Kashmiri businessman arrested in Delhi on terrorism charges on Monday urged Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to help get her son released, claiming he was innocent.
The businessman’s family members also staged a protest here.
Businessman Bilal Ahmad Kawa was arrested from the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on January 12 by Delhi Police and the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad for alleged involvement in a 2000 attack on the Red Fort.
Delhi Police said the 37-year-old’s bank account had been used for terror funding in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere by the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Kawa’s mother Fatima told reporters during the protest that her son was a genuine businessman holding an Indian passport issued in 2001.
She insisted that if her son was a militant, she would never seek his release. She asked Mehbooba Mufti to intervene and ensure that her son was not framed.
According to her, Kawa had gone to Delhi for a medical check up. The Jammu and Kashmir Police has said there was no case against him, nor does he figure in any list of terror suspects.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Zahoor Wattali
New Delhi : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday arrested Zahoor Wattali, a prominent Kashmiri businessman and a close aide of separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, on charges of funding terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.
Wattali was arrested from Srinagar, a day after the NIA searched multiple locations in the Kashmir Valley, including the businessman’s office and houses of his close relatives.
—IANS
