NIA probes routing money through ordinary Kashmiris to fund

militancy New Delhi, Aug 17 (PTI) The NIA has launched a probe totrack the funding of militants in Jammu and Kashmir by theirsympathisers abroad who have started using bank accounts ofordinary citizens to route money to finance their activitiesin the restive state. Running the risk of getting caught by the Indian securityand intelligence agencies, the militant organisations andtheir sympathisers have begun jettisoning the hawala channelsfor transferring money and are wooing Kashmiris who travel togulf countries for work. After thoroughly brainwashing them, the individual ispersuaded to receive money in his bank account which is thenused for financing terror activities, official sources said. One per cent of the money received is left in the bankaccount of the individual by their ‘handlers’ based abroad ascommission, they said. The money so deposited in the bank accounts is withdrawnwithin days. Sources in the anti-terror probe agency said discreetinquiries showed that some people who received such dubiousmoney in their accounts had no connection whatsoever with thedepositors and the amounts were withdrawn within 48 hours ofbeing transferred. In order to avoid detection by the Reserve Bank of India,the funds are transferred in small amounts not exceeding Rsone lakh. Banks in India are mandated to give a SuspiciousTransaction Report (STR) if they find over Rs 10 lakh has beendeposited in any account in one go and also if they noticeregular flow of large amounts into it from the same source. Therefore, the sources said, the money is deposited invarious accounts in order to avoid being noticed and named inSTR. The same set of people is used after a gap of no lessthan three to four months. Over invoicing of goods by some Kashmiri businessmen doingtrade in the Gulf has also come under NIA lens, sources said. The Income Tax authorities have also been asked to sharedetails about some businessmen to ascertain if the moneytransferred by them was used to fund militancy in the Valley,they said. Inputs about money being pumped into the Valley was sharedby the army with the NIA after which the agency registered aPreliminary Enquiry (PE) to probe the matter, they said. PTISKL SKSK