Shabir Shah 'Confesses' to Links With Hafiz Saeed, Pak Hawala Operators

New Delhi: Separatist leader Shabir Shah has reportedly confessed to links with hawala operators in Pakistan who were laundering money to fund militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.

The chargesheet filed against the separatist leader by the Enforcement Directorate said he had also admitted that he was in “regular" touch with 26/11 attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed and had last spoken to the Lashkar-e-Taiba founder in January this year.

The chargesheet, a copy of which was accessed by CNN-News18, also said that Shah had confessed to paying a 3% commission to the hawala operators.

It has also been found that the website IP address of Shah’s Democratic Freedom Party is registered to Peshawar, while the Information Department of the political party is in Rawalpindi.

The Enforcement Directorate has also reportedly found that Shah was accepting donations in cash, but did not file tax returns for the same, nor did he issue any receipts for these donations. He had no regular source of income.

The probe agency filed the chargesheet in a Delhi court on Saturday afternoon.

CNN-News18 had earlier reported on how money from Pakistan was being routed to India to fund terror activities in the Valley. The ‘Jihadi Badaam’ investigation had exposed how Pakistan's ISI and Lashkar-e-Taiba were using cross-border trade of California Almonds, which is duty-free, to transfer funds to terror organisations.

In 2005, the Delhi Police's Special Cell had arrested hawala dealer Mohammad Aslam Wani with cash and firearms, who later confessed to passing on a huge amount of cash to the separatist leader.

Wani was arrested allegedly with Rs 63 lakh, received through 'hawala' channels from the Middle East, and a large cache of ammunition.

During questioning, he had told the police that Rs 50 lakh was to be delivered to Shah and Rs 10 lakh to Jaish-e-Mohammad area commander in Srinagar, Abu Baqar, and that the rest was his commission.

Wani, who hails from Srinagar, had also claimed that he delivered around Rs 2.25 crore to Shah and his kin in multiple instalments over the past year.

The Enforcement Directorate then registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against Shah and Wani.

Shah had earlier said the ED case against him was "politically motivated".

(With agency inputs)