Separatist Shabir Shah has links with 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed: Enforcement Directorate
New Delhi, September 24: Kashmiri separatists reside in India, take all the benefits from India but work as Pakistani agent. The central probe agencies including NIA, CBI, Enforcement Directorate etc has intensified its efforts to bring all the separatists to justice as they are involved in subversive activities in the Kashmir valley. Notably, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has said in a chargesheet that Kashmiri separatist and the Democratic Freedom Party chief Shabir Shah had links with Pakistani terror outfits that were funding attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Enforcement Directorate in a charge sheet filed in a Delhi court on Saturday said Kashmiri separatist Shabir Shah has admitted of being in a regular touch with 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed. The chargesheet also reads that Shabir Shah had links with terror outfits in Pakistan that were funding terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of India.
Shabir was arrested in July this year and ED complaint filed before the Delhi court also named hawala dealer Mohammed Aslam Wani, who is in judicial custody along with Shah. Shabir’s close aide and hawala dealer Aslam Wani was arrested in August this year has already disclosed receiving funds from a Pakistani hawala operator on Shah’s behalf in Delhi.
The Enforcement Directorate filed the chargesheet under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), has furnished Shah's statements where he has revealed to the probe agency that he has no source of income of his own and that he does not file any Income Tax Return. Therefore, the Delhi court also took cognisance of the over 700-page charge sheet and directed the production of the accused before it on 27th of this month.
However, call records of Shah’s mobile number revealed that he had contacts in Pakistan, Dubai and England, the agency said, adding that these need further investigation. The case came into limelight in 2005 when the Delhi Police arrested Wani, who had claimed of giving Rs 2.25 crore to Shah illegally. After this, the Enforcement Directorate had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against both. The agency had issued several summons to Shah, but he never appeared before them. Interestingly, in 2010, a Delhi court had cleared Wani of terror funding charges but had convicted him under the Arms Act.