Yet another Tehrik channel came to light with the arrest on July 22, 2002, of Shaukat AhmedShah, chief of Jamaat-Ahle-Hadis, J&K, and an ideologue of the Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen, on charges of routingfunds to the tune of Rs. 4.0 million to the terrorist group. On August 2, 2002, Abdul Rashid Bhat was arrestedwith a consignment of Rs. 1.0 million while attempting to pass funds on to the Al Badr group (he had earlierchannelised two transactions worth Rs. 800,000).
Many J&K-based doctors, engineers, technicians and certain business houses working in the Gulf and engagedin the provision of various services, or export of goods, such as carpets and handicrafts, have diverted fundsthrough hawala operators to finance militants and secessionist leaders. Among one of the currentlypopular modes of hawala transfer is the movement of money through small-scale businessmen, such asshawl vendors. Although individual amounts involved in these transactions are small, very large numbers ofsuch transactions result in transfers of great magnitude.
The ease with which transfers take place is visible, not only in the free availability of resources to allterrorist groups operating in J&K and other parts of the country, but also in the movement of such fundsinto the bank accounts of terrorists like the 9/11 hijacker, Mohammed Atta through JeM terrorist Omar Sheikh,with no paper evidence left behind. The arrest of Aftab Ansari alias Farhan Malik, a Dubai-based Mafiosi,for his role in the January 22, 2002, terrorist attack on the American Centre in Kolkata revealed that he hadmasterminded the abduction of Kolkata-based businessman Parthapratim Roy Burman and extracted a ransom of$815,000 via Dubai through hawala. Omar Sheikh had reportedly wired $100,000 to Mohammed Atta out ofthis money.
The largest flow of money towards terrorist groups is through hawala transactions routed through theGulf region. The scenario has been rather dismal for Indian enforcement agencies vis-à-vis Dubai, the hub ofthe hawala racket, along with Pakistan. Lack of laws that explicitly prohibit hawala, and thefact that Dubai is a free trade zone, have not only led to complexities in curbing the practice, but also to avery low priority ascribed to such activities by the enforcement agencies in that country.