NIA charge-sheet in trade-terror funding case

SRINAGAR: The NIA filed a chargesheet Friday against three accused in a 2016 case of terror funding through illicit profiteering from the now-suspended cross-LoC barter trade with PoK.

Much of the funds were raised by under-reporting the value of almonds imported from PoK, selling them at a premium and ploughing back the gains into terror operations in Kashmir, an NIA spokesman said.

Traders Tanveer Ahmad Wani of Pulwama, and Peer Arshad Iqbal and Bashir Ahmad Sofi of Baramulla have been charged under UAPA and Section 120B of IPC (criminal conspiracy), the NIA spokesman said. The trio were arrested a few years ago.

Tanveer provided such funds to terrorists of Hizbul and Jaish-e-Mohammad) and Arshad to Bashir Ahmad Sofi, an ex-Hizbul terrorist, the NIA official said and added that the duo also had trading ties with PoK-based Hizbul terrorists. Some of the PoK traders were “crossed-over terrorists” backed by Hizbul, the NIA spokesman claimed.

The LoC trade started in 2008 and was stopped in April 2019. “The trade was conducted via Uri in Baramulla and Chakan-da-Bagh in Jammu’s Poonch. As per the SoP, 21 articles were allowed to be imported from PoK and exported from J&K,” the NIA official said.

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