With the arrest of six accused, police have busted a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terror financing network in Jammu, Mukesh Singh, Inspector General of Police, Jammu said on Saturday.
According to the police, the arrested accused have been identified as Mudasir Farooq Bhat, Tauqil Ahmad Bhat, Asif Bhat, Khalid Latif Bhat, Gazi Iqbal and Tariq Hussain Mir.
Singh told a press conference, "We got information that a terror financing network is operating in Jammu. Special Operations Group (SOG), Jammu, called up Mudasir Farooq Bhat, resident of Doda, for interrogation and subsequently arrested him after his confession about links with Lashkar-e-Toiba financing network."
"On July 19, police seized a tiffin box containing Rs 1.5 lakh. On further interrogation, he disclosed other details on the basis of which, we arrested five more people having links with LeT. A case has been registered under section 38 (Membership of LeT) and 40 (Financing and other support activities) of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act," said Singh.
He said that all these accused were working for Haroon Ilias Khubeb (Mohammad Naveen Bhat), resident of Doda. Haroon was trained with the LeT in Pakistan in 1997.
"Haroon came back to Doda and was involved in LeT activities. He then went back to Pakistan in 2006. Since then he has been working for the orgsation and is active there," Singh said.
"Haroon has created this network in Jammu which had been taking part in LeT activities for the last two-three years. A man named Abid Ahmad Bhat was recruited and was killed in an encounter in 2018. Another person named Jamaldin was recruited and had been arrested in 2019 and is in jail at present," said the Inspector General.
They were being paid for performing terror activities and a total of Rs 12.5 lakh has been transferred to them through Attari Border and other channels. Hawala transactions were made through Mumbai and some of the money was transferred through electronic mode.
Singh said they were planning something bigger in future.
"We don't have specific information regarding any activity that they were planning on August 5 or 15, but yes the attempt was to reactivate and probably, they were planning something bigger in future," Mukesh Singh said.
( With inputs from ANI )