As governments slept, this high-profile Srinagar businessman channelised funds for ISI

What is even more ironic is that Watali continued to play the bridge between Pakistan separatists and never any concrete action was taken.

From being a driver of late Hurriyat leader Abdul Ghani Lone to one the main links between the ISI and Kashmir separatists, Zahoor Watali has come a long way. It finally took the NIA days of investigations and painful collection of evidence before Watali was arrested.

Ironically, this is not the first time that Watali has come under the scanner of the security agencies. He was under the radar since 1994 when he was found funding a terror group called Al Burq.

Prior to this Watali was arrested on the suspicion that he was illegally remitting funds to the secessionists, terrorists and stone-pelters. This was in 1990. He was taken into custody along with Yaseen Malik, Sajjad Gani Lone, Bilal Lone and others and was jailed for eight months at Jammu.

In the year 2009, Zahoor Watali was accused of illegal encroachment of land and assault, and a case was registered against him at P S Parimpora, Srinagar. The court had however stayed the investigation.

Zahoor Watali was also accused of travelling on a cancelled/invalid passport. Instead of surrendering the cancelled passport to the authorities, he travelled abroad.

Back in 2011, a huge remittance of 31,000 US dollars was tracked. This remittance was made after he returned from Dubai, the agencies say. In addition to this his accounts in the RAK and J&K bank had many such remittances. The NIA is now trying to find out the source of the money. He had claimed that the income was legitimate and even told the NIA that he had paid his income tax.

The NIA has found that he had a FCNRE account in a major bank in Delhi. It is suspected that a large amount of foreign remittances into this account was made. These transactions have been taking place since 2005. The FCNRE facility is given only to those who stay away from India for at least 3 months. He however continued to enjoy the facility despite him not being away from India for that long a period.

What is even more ironic is that Watali continued to play the bridge between Pakistan separatists and never any concrete action was taken. While on one hand he continued to move funds for the ISI, on the other he purchased properties in high-profile localities. Some of the properties under the scanner are in Delhi and London. The agencies have found that he has properties in Greater Kailash, Sainik Farms, Gurgaon and in London too.

For the NIA this is a major breakthrough and his question will point towards the bigger fish in the game. The NIA proposes to question the likes of Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani next.

OneIndia News