New Delhi: In a crackdown on terror financing in Jammu and Kashmir, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Monday attached 17 properties of Zahoor Ahmed Shah Watali — the alleged chief financier of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) head Hafiz Saeed — in connection with the Hurriyat terror funding case.
According to the NIA, all the properties attached were in the Handwara area of Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
Watali was arrested by the NIA in August 2017 in connection with the J&K terror funding case, in which Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) commander Yasin Malik is currently undergoing life imprisonment. Malik was convicted in May 2022.
Besides Malik, 17 others — including Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, amir of Jamaat-ud-Dawah and top commander of LeT; and Mohammad Yusuf Shah alias Syed Salahuddin, top commander of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen — were charge-sheeted in the case registered suo motu by the NIA on 30 May, 2017.
The case pertains to terrorist and secessionist activities in J&K carried out by proscribed ISI-backed organisations, such as LeT, JKLF, and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).
“These outfits were spreading terror and perpetrating violence in the valley by promoting and conducting attacks on civilians and security forces,” the NIA said.
According to an NIA statement, the banned terrorist groups were using the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), which was formed in 1993, as a “front for carrying out and supporting secessionist activities in Kashmir.”
Investigations in the case, NIA said, have revealed that the “secessionists, arraigned as accused in the case, including the APHC, had entered into a criminal conspiracy and adopted a strategy of instigating the general public to create a surcharged atmosphere in the Kashmir valley and resort to violence.”
As reported by ThePrint earlier, Watali has land holdings of 605 and 181 square yards in Handwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, along with shops in Bhagatpora village in the district. He allegedly also has a plot in Narbal, Budgam, and another land parcel of 11,495 square yards in Katswari village of the same district.
Sources also told ThePrint that Watali owns a 23-storey building at Porchester Place, Westminster Council, London, a luxury flat at the NRI colony in south Delhi and a construction company in Dubai, among a host of properties that he has allegedly bought across the country and abroad.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in 2018 attached a villa in Gurgaon that was allegedly in Watali’s name and investigators believed that the property was bought with funds from the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) — a Pakistan-based trust run by Hafiz Saeed. Investigators also believe that most of these properties were bought by Watali at the behest of Saeed, sources added.
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‘A hawala conduit’
According to the NIA statement, Watali had been sending the funds raised by him from various sources to the Hurriyat leaders to promote the secession of Jammu & Kashmir from the Union of India.
“NIA investigations have revealed that Watali was a hawala conduit, who was receiving money from Hafiz Saeed, a ‘specially designated global terrorist’ of the United States and a ‘listed global terrorist’ of the UN,” the statement said.
Hafiz Saeed was the mastermind behind the 2001 Parliament attack and the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
“He had received foreign remittances into bank accounts running into crores between 2011 and 2013 from various sources. Besides, he had received foreign remittances in his proprietorship firm named M/s ‘Trisson International’, Srinagar and unexplained remittances were also found in his NRE Bank accounts,” the statement added.
According to the NIA, Watali had also shown the sale of a plot of land measuring 20 kanals, purportedly owned by Watali’s company, M/s ‘Trison Farms and Constructions Pvt. Ltd.’ to one Naval Kishore Kapoor, a co-accused in the case.
However, the investigations found that neither Watali nor his above-mentioned company was the owner of this plot in the revenue records, the NIA added.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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