THE STATES

The hawala trail

BRITISH officials are investigating the activities of one of the most prominent overseas backers of secessionist groups in Jammu and Kashmir. Last month, the United Kingdom's Charities Commission and the Metropolitan Police began looking into allegations that Ayub Thokar, the head of the World Kashmir Freedom Movement, had funnelled funds raised for charity to the terrorist groups.

Investigations into Thokar's role in funding terror began after Indian officials handed over evidence in the case to their British counterparts in June. The two Indian officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs and a senior Jammu and Kashmir Police officer made available details of funds funnelled from Thokar's charity, Mercy International, through Standard Chartered Grindlays Bank (since then renamed Standard Chartered Bank) and the Development Credit Bank. The investigators also provided transcripts of telephone intercepts and cases filed against the recipients of the funds in India.

On May 25, a long-running Intelligence Bureau operation led to the arrest of Srinagar-based journalist Imtiaz Bazaz. Officials claim that he was a key conduit for transferring funds to Hizbul Mujahideen field commanders in Jammu and Kashmir. On April 22 Bazaz had received a foreign currency remittance of Rs.4,84,875 into his account with Standard Chartered in New Delhi, and on May 15 a second remittance of Rs.14,98,000 into the Development Credit Bank. Although intelligence officials monitored the first transaction, they did not intervene, in the interest of building up evidence. The second transaction was frozen.

The funds trail led straight to Thokar. It transpired that in early 2001, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Mohammad Yusuf Shah had sent Rs.48 lakh to Jamaat-e-Islami leader Syed Salahuddin through Thokar. Subsequently, after the arrest of Jamait-ul-Mujahideen finance commander Qasim Faktu, Thokar began to finance his organisation through the terrorist's wife, Asiya Indrabi. Most of the funds were routed through Bazaz, who arranged for the transfer of funds received in New Delhi to accounts held with the Jammu & Kashmir Bank in Srinagar. Cash was then paid to the final recipients.

Meanwhile, Income Tax Department investigations against All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani have started to bear fruit (Frontline, July 5, 2002). The secessionist leader claimed an annual agricultural income of Rs.10,000 in his tax returns, and also received the official pension of Rs.85,200 due to two-term MLAs - ironically enough for a man now at the cutting edge of the secessionist anti-election campaign! His expensive house in Hyderpora, however, had several cars parked there and the household was run by a personal staff of 14 people. The monthly kitchen expenses amounted to Rs.25,000. Income Tax Department searches of the Geelani home also yielded Rs.10.25 lakhs and $10,000 in cash. Income-tax officials have now decided to impose penalties of Rs.30 lakhs on Geelani, based on his estimated income over the last six years, the maximum period allowed by law. His businessman son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah, who allegedly used his legitimate operations to launder funds, has been slapped with a Rs.40 lakhs penalty. Failure to pay could lead to the auctioning of Geelani's assets, including the Hyderpora home.

Separate income-tax penalties of Rs.2 crores have been imposed on businessman Abdul Rashid Saraf, who was allegedly involved in handling hawala funds sent to APHC chairman Abdul Gani Bhat. Saraf, income-tax authorities found, had failed to disclose income of Rs.3.37 crores over the last six years.

The vigour that the Income Tax Department has shown in this matter marks a welcome departure from the past. After it was driven out of Srinagar in the later 1980s by mobs that attacked income tax inspectors, the organisation had granted de-facto independence to the State. This time, two planeloads of officials flew into the Avantipora Air Force base and they were escorted to the raids by police officers. Their successes seem to have convinced the Income Tax Department that it is after all possible to play a useful role in Jammu and Kashmir.

In the U.K., both Mercy International and Thokar will now have to answer some hard questions. For one, there is no explanation why the organisation did not send supposed philanthropic donations to the several-dozen charities in Jammu and Kashmir which have clearances under the Foreign Exchange Management Act. Thokar will also have to explain how he paid for the purchase of his London home, and his regular overseas travels, given the fact that he has no ostensible means of income. India has, however, chosen not to seek Thokar's extradition, since the fact that his wife is a U.K. national makes this outcome unlikely.

For India, British action in this case will be a key test of its loudly-advertised anti-terrorist stance. In March, sources told Frontline, Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani had handed over to British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw a dossier on the activities of secessionist groups in the U.K. Titled 'Misuse of British Soil by Kashmir Expatriates Based in the U.K. for Funding Terrorism in J&K', the document outlined many of the charges which investigations have now added substance to. Sources say the team that visited the U.K. pointed to Straw's promises to crack down on terrorism-related money laundering, and were told that criminal prosecutions would take place in the U.K. Earlier, the U.K. successfully prosecuted two Khalistan-linked British nationals involved in backing the Babbar Khalsa International.

If funds transfers to terrorist groups are effectively cut off, it will do not a little to cripple such organisations. The reasons are simple. While it is easy to send cadres across the Line of Control, actually sustaining their activities in Jammu and Kashmir needs an elaborate financial structure. Money is needed to pay for everything from food and shelter to informants, political support and the legal defence of arrested sympathisers. Since it is impossible to lug sacks full of cash across the LoC, illegal funds transfers come into play. For many businessmen in the Kashmir Valley, holding such cash for short terms has been a profitable, risk-free enterprise. Now the penalties imposed should persuade conduits for blood-money transfers that crime does not, in fact, pay.