The Hindu : Front Page : Hizb militant, hawala operator arrested

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 13, 2005

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Hizb militant, hawala operator arrested

Staff Reporter

"The arrested militants planned to target Palam Air Force base in Delhi" Huge consignments of fake currency notes are being pushed into India through Nepal Terrorist outfits are developing conduits in government offices

NEW DELHI: A Hizbul Mujahideen militant and a hawala operator, who was serving as Deputy Director in the Soil Conservation Department in Srinagar, have been arrested by the Special Staff of the Delhi police. An AK-series assault rifle, live cartridges, grenades, detonators, remote-controlled device and radio set are alleged to have been recovered from them.

In an operation conducted in coordination with Military Intelligence, the Special Staff arrested four men allegedly working as conduits of Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) on July 2. They were identified as Saqib Rehman, Basir Ahmad Shah, Nazir and Haji Gulam Muhiddin Dar, from whom two cheque leaves for Rs.9.5lakhs, an army combat uniform, a sketch of Delhi's Palam Air Force base, a grenade and other weapons were allegedly recovered.

Teams despatched

At their instance, two teams comprising Sub-Inspectors Rajkumar, Ravinder Tyagi and Assistant Sub-Inspector Charan Singh were dispatched to the Kashmir Valley and Patna. The team led by S-I Tyagi raided hideouts of Saqib Rehman and Haji Gulam Muhiddin, from where hawala money and weapons besides over a dozen under-barrel and hand grenades and a remote-controlled device were allegedly recovered. Acting on a tip-off about a hawala operator, Abdul Qayoom Khan, the police raided his place and arrested him.

According to the police, the brother of Qayoom, a Deputy Director in the Soil Conservation Department, was personal secretary to the Principal Secretary (Home) in the Jammu and Kashmir Government, while his wife is a veterinary doctor. During interrogation, Qayoom allegedly disclosed that this April, Saqib Rehman, a militant trained in handling of weapons in Pakistan, had introduced him to Haji Gulam Muhiddin who directed him to collect money at his behest through hawala channels. In May, Qayoom allegedly received Rs.50lakhs in Srinagar. While he kept Rs.9.5lakhs with him, he passed on the remainder to Saqib. Saqib and Haji Gulam Muhiddin kept Rs.10.5lakhs and allegedly arranged fake Indian currency worth Rs.1crore from Patna and Kathmandu from the rest of the money. Saqib allegedly received the fake currency through Basir and Nazir, following which he distributed the amount among the militants and ISI conduits for circulation in the Indian market, while he kept Rs.1lakh of fake currency with him.

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