The Hindu : Arrested journalist has Hizb links: police

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 11, 2003

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Arrested journalist has Hizb links: police

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI MAY 10. Gulam Moiudin Bhat, owner of the Srinagar-based Kashmir Press Service and an alleged confidant of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander, Syed Salahuddin, has been arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi police. A Chinese pistol and Rs. 6.5 lakhs were recovered from him.

A team led by Inspector Brahmjeet Singh of the Special Cell was tipped off that intense pressure from intelligence agencies and policing in Jammu and Kashmir had dried up the hawala channels for funding Hizb militants. Therefore, the terrorists were sending their agents to the Capital to receive the funds supplied from Pakistan through other channels. The input was developed and based on a tip-off a trap was laid near the Mool Chand flyover where the hawala money was to change hands. Around 11.45 p.m. on Friday the suspect, who was allegedly waiting for his contact, was spotted and arrested.

A search of his belongings revealed a wristwatch with a hidden camera and a mobile phone. The accused, who identified himself as Gulam Moiudin Bhat, said he had received the money from a Pakistani ISI contact and was about to pass it on to another agent for distribution among Hizb cadres in the Kashmir Valley.

Bhat also published a daily, Tameel-i-Irshad. On the ISI's instructions, he had begun working as an intelligence operative for the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and kept track of the activities of other journalists in the State, police said. "He would pass on information to Hizb militants about journalists writing against them following which the militants used to threaten them."

On several occasions, Bhat acted as a spokesperson for Hizb militants under different names.

He allegedly revealed that in October 2001 he went to Pakistan and visited terrorist camps opened by various extremist organisations. During that visit, he came close to Syed Salahuddin and started working for him.

According to police, the Kashmir Press Service worked as a feeder service for Kashmir Media Service and Online News in Pakistan.

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