Early Times Report
Srinagar, July 19: Investigators have found a common link between money received by Firdous Ahmad Shah, a member of Syed Ali Shah Geelani's hardline Hurriyat Conference, and financiers of 26/11 Mumbai attack.
Two names - Madina Trading and Javed Iqbal - names were revealed during investigations into the 26/11 Mumbai attacks when investigators found that second payment of 229 US dollars was wired to Callphonex via Western Union Money Transfer receipt number 8364307716-0 to activate the Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) used during the terror strikes.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which recently filed its first charge sheet in a money laundering case in the Kashmir Valley, has accused Shah, Chairman of Democratic Political Movement, of receiving over Rs 3 crore between 2007 to 2010 from Madina Trading located in Brescia in Italy. The sender called himself Javed Iqbal, a resident of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK), who, records show, had wired Shah the sum in some 300 installments. Iqbal is believed to have used Western Union Money Transfer agent Madina Trading wire funds to Callphonex. For identification, Iqbal provided Madina Trading with Pakistani passport number KC092481, the charge sheet said.
With arrest of two Pakistan nationals in 2009, however, Italian Police, found that the firm stole identities to wire funds, which led them to conclude that Iqbal's identity was also most likely stolen while he was wiring some money from another agency in Pakistan.
A thorough investigation into the wired transfers revealed that the sum was sent to Shah and his associate Yar Mohammed Khan in small amounts, the sources claimed.
The charge sheet, filed in the court of Sessions Judge, Srinagar (Special Judge, Money Laundering), names Shah and Khan and accuses them of using the wired sum for funding terrorist activities.
The ED attached Shah's house at Abi Gujar in Lal Chowk and froze Rs 1 lakh belonging to Khan, but the court later released Shah's house. When contacted, Shah dismissed the charges, saying: "I don't remember (if the money was wired). There was some money that had come to Khan but I don't remember as of now." He, however, refused to say anything more. The previous Omar Abdullah government had requested the central government to get the Enforcement Directorate to investigate cases related to terror funding. |
