The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Saturday said it arrested six people, busting a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) module that was recruiting local youth and carrying out hawala transactions to finance terror activities in the region. Inspector General of Police for Jammu zone, Mukesh Singh, said a joint team of the police's Special Operations Group and the Army had on July 19 apprehended one Mubashir Farooq Batt from Doda and retrieved Rs 1.5 lakh concealed in a tiffin box. The accused was a BSC nursing student at Kharar, he said, adding a case under provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967 was registered at Peermitha police station. The IGP added that the LeT module had links to other parts of the country. Mubashir's questioning led to the apprehension of five more suspects from Doda - Toqeer Ahmad Batt and Asif Batt, residents of Sazan, Khalid Latief Batt and Gazi Iqbal from Kotal village and Tariq Hussain Mir of Tanta. Toqeer was a maulvi in Shimal village, Asif is a surrendered militant and ex-SPO in J&K Police and Khalid Latief was a contractor. Gazi and Tariq were shopkeepers. The police claimed all arrested accused were in contact with Pakistani handler Mohammad Amin Batt, alias Haroon, alias Khubaib. Haroon, who hailed from Kathawa in Doda, had remained an LeT district commander in Doda before he exfiltrated to Pakistan in 2007, police claimed. The accused were allegedly tasked to identify youth for recruitment, provide logistical support and strengthen the cadre in the region. They were further allegedly tasked with sharing information about the presence of security forces and key locations to Pakistani handlers and transport arms and ammunition, besides distributing money among the families of active and slain militants. During questioning, they allegedly revealed they had received Rs 12,19,704 in total through different means. Police claimed they were also instrumental in recruiting Abid Ahmed Bhat and Jamal Din, both residents of Doda. While Abid was later killed in an encounter, Jamal surrendered. The IGP said police had also questioned a tempo driver, Mohammad Irfan Khan of Bijarni in Doda, during which it was revealed that in early July, he, Gazi and another suspect had hoisted a Pakistani flag at Lal Draman area in the district. They were allegedly asked to do so by Haroon, he said, adding this was corroborated by Gazi. After questioning Tariq, police said they recovered three more tiffin boxes from his house in Tanta, containing Rs 40,700 which he allegedly received from Pakistan handlers. A probe into the terror financing case is in progress, the IGP said, adding the involvement of four accused from Kashmir has surfaced. On the hawala channels, the IGP said the accused had been using three channels including one on the Attari-Wagah border. He further said some people returning to Jammu and Kashmir after meeting relatives in Pakistan were given tiffin boxes containing cash which would later be collected by Let module members. The accused would also receive money through a hawala channel via Mumbai as well as electronic fund transfers.
