Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 13: The 18-year-old Hawala case has begun to haunt JKLF Chief Yasin Malik once again with his close aide and his wife being issued fresh notice to appear before the Enforcement Directorate on September 6.
On Monday ED issued fresh notices to Malik and his two other aides, asking them to make themselves present before the Directorate on September 5 and 6. The case is set to open up a pandora box about how the separatists in Kashmir are acting merely as the proxies of Pakistan and how that country has been financing them to keep Kashmir pot boiling.
Notice issued on Monday by the ED, while drawing the attention of the accused towards the provision of rule 4 (7) of the Foreign Exchange Management Adjudication Proceedings and appeal rule 2000, says that if any of the three persons neglects or refuses to appear as required by sub rule 3 before the adjudication authority, proceedings will be initiated in their absence.
On March 24, 2002 Jammu Police recovered $100,000 (Rs 48 lakh) stitched on to the salwar of a young Kashmiri woman at a check-post on the Jammu-Srinagar highway.
Intelligence officials in Srinagar believed the consignment was part of the funds Malik had raised during his trip to the US in July-September last year. But the funds could not be channelled to Kashmir in the wake of 9/11.
Reports had claimed then that Altaf Qadri, a PoK-based JKLF leader known for his proximity to Malik, got the money in Pakistan through hawala channels. Qadri had the money delivered in Kathmandu to Mushtaq Ahmed Dar, a former district commander of JKLF. Dar used his fiancee Shameema alias Shazia Begum as a cover and the plan worked during their travel from Kathmandu to Jammu.
Pertinently, Yasin Malik was arrested by Police on March 25, 2002, on charges relating to hawala transfers. He was booked under the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO). The arrest took place following the March 24, 2002, arrest of Mushtaq Ahmed Dar, a JKLF activist, by Udhampur Police at Kud, along with a woman, Shazia Begum, who were carrying USD 100,000 for Yasin Malik. |
