ISI-run currency racket busted

After the hawala channel used by the terrorists and their upper ground activists and some Hurriyat constituents was busted, ISI was pumping in fake currency to finance the mercenaries, he said.

Batloo revealed on interrogation that he had prepared fake currency valued at Rs 50 lakh during the past ten months which is now in circulation in the Valley through militants of Harkat-ul-Ansar and Hizbul Mujahideen outfits, Gill said.

Batloo had undergonea three-year imprisonment and was released after completion of his public safety act warrant in February 1997, the IG said.

He had evaded the police dragnet earlier this year when the police had busted a fake currency racket, he said.

Gill said the Srinagar SOG unit had been maintaining a constant vigil ever since fake currency notes circulated in Pulwama were recovered, and finally trapped Farooq Batloo in Srinagar three days ago.

Tight border security and elimination of infiltrators at the line of control (LoC) had left the ISI with no option but prepare fake currency inside Kashmir, he said.

“The ISI had developed a number of channels such as charitable trusts to receive money through banks and hawala routes to supply funds to Hurriyat leaders who then distributed them to terrorist group commanders,” Gill said.

He said with the busting of this channel, the finances of foreign mercenaries and local terrorists will soon dry up.

Gill said security forces are now looking for the Kashmir head ofHarkat-ul-Ansar, Shahbaz Khan alias Jehadi, a Pakistani national, who was one of the key figures behind the racket and was also wanted in the Wandhama massacre of 23 members of the minority community in January this year.

While 16 of the 18 terrorists involved in the massacre have been eliminated, Jehadi is one of the two still evading arrest, he said.