At a hurriedly-called press conference today evening, the Delhi Police announced the arrests of two Hurriyat activists who they claimed received money from the Pakistan High Commission for ‘‘terrorist activities’’ in the Valley. Since the arrests for the first time linked Hurriyat chief Abdul Gani Bhat to transactions with Pakistani sources, their ripples are expected to hit the Valley’s politics. Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Neeraj Kumar said that Anjum Zamruda Habib was found with Rs 3.7 lakh which she was ‘‘supposed to take to Anantnag and hand over to militant outfits operating there’’. ‘‘We received intelligence inputs that Habib would be getting a huge amount of money from the Pakistan High Commission, which would be used to fund terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir. She was apprehended at around 1.15 pm from near Nehru Park. We recovered the money from her possession,’’ Kumar said. The police say Habib, a member of Khwatin-e-Markaz, a wing of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, collected the money from ‘‘Pakistani Deputy High Commissioner Jalil Abbas Gilani.’’ They have also arrested Sabir Ahmed Dar, who is in charge of the Kashmir Awareness Bureau at Malviya Nagar. Police officers said that both have been booked under section 22 of POTA for receiving money believed to be for terrorism. He added that during interrogation ‘‘Habib revealed that the money had been given to her by the Deputy High Commissioner at the Pakistan High Commission. She told us that she had been sent there to meet Gilani on the instructions of Professor Abdul Gani Bhat, the chairman of the All Party Hurriyat Conference’’. Kumar said that the appointment to meet the deputy high commissioner was fixed by Bhat and Dar. The JCP said that Habib told the police that she had arrived in New Delhi on February 5 by air and was returning to Anantnag on February 8. She had told the police that this was her first visit to the Capital and she had been staying at the Kashmir Awareness Bureau. Police said that both the accused will be produced in the court of S.N. Dhingra at Patiala House on Friday. The arrest has come come as a jolt to the separatist conglomerate, which was trying to bounce back from a virtual political oblivion since the assembly elections last year. The latest arrests are bad news for Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s government as well. It is already finding it difficult to contnue with its policy of healing touch, release detenues and manage a dialogue between the separatists and the Centre. Hurriyat is worried because the name of Bhat has also come in the case. The police had accused Hurriyat leaders Yasin Malik and Syed Ali Shah Geelani to be involved in hawala transactions last year. Malik was arrested under POTA after police claimed that $ 1 lakh recovered from a couple on the Jammu-Srinagar highway was meant for him. Geelani is still under custody. Habib is a member of Hurriyat Conference’s general council and is among its second-rung leaders. She is one of the few woman activists who are part of this separatist conglomerate. However, Dar of Sopore is a senior leader of Muslim Conference — the party led by Bhat himself. Although Delhi Police has claimed that the money recovered from Habib was meant for militants in her home district Anantnag, the J&K Police does not agree. ‘‘It is peanuts for militants. It must be the share of Zamruda’s party which is part of the Hurriyat,’’ a senior officer said. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police sent a fax to Inspector General of Police, Kashmir range, K Rajendra, requesting him to check the antecedents of Zamruda. ‘‘We immediately sent out two parties to her home in Anantnag and also to her office at Rambagh. Her home in Anantnag was locked and we did not find any incriminating material from either of the two places,’’ Rajendra said. The arrest is a jolt to Hurriyat as they had started to bounce back into political activity to confront Mufti and his party whose policy of healing touch had literally turned Hurriyat a political non-entity. It was only yesterday that the Hurriyat held a press briefing criticising Mufti’s government for failing to keep up to its promises like release of detenues, disbanding of Special Operations Group and initiation of a dialogue on Kashmir.
