Shabir Shah summoned by ED in terror finance case

Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Ahmed Shah has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate for questioning in connection with a decade-old case of terror financing through 'hawala channel'.
Shah, the Chairman of Democratic Freedom Party of Jammu and Kashmir, has been summoned here for March 24, official sources said here.
The case relates to August 2005 of Delhi Police's Special Cell when they arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani, an alleged hawala dealer, who had claimed that he had passed on Rs 2.25 crore to Shah.
When contacted, Shah, who has denied these charges earlier, said that he was not aware of any summons. When pressed further, he said that he was in a meeting and he will talk tomorrow.

Wani, who is at present out on a bail, has also been summoned by the ED, which registered a case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against him.
Wani was arrested with Rs 63 lakh received through 'hawala' channels from the Middle East and a large amount of ammunition on August 26, 2005.

During questioning, he had claimed before police that Rs 50 lakh was to be delivered to Shah and Rs 10 lakh to the Jaish-e-Mohammad 'area commander' in Srinagar Abu Baqar while the rest of the money was to be his commission.
Wani (35), who hailed from Srinagar, also claimed that he had delivered about Rs 2.25 crore to Shah and his kin in several instalments over the past year.

Wani, who ran a computer shop with his brother-in-law Feroz Mattoo, had come in contact with Shah early in 2004 when he had sold him a computer, police had said.
According to sources, Shah had asked Wani to channel 'hawala' money to him from Delhi for which he was paid three per cent as commission.
He had also given Wani the phone number of one Saifi based in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) who gave him instructions to collect the money.
Wani had come in contact in March, 2005, with Abu Baqar who had directed him to collect a consignment of explosives, arms and ammunition from Delhi, the sources said.

Wani was arrested along with 5 kg RDX, 10 detonantors and a foreign-made pistol with 15 live cartridges from an East of Kailash apartment in south Delhi.