ED attaches Shabir Shah’s Srinagar house in terror funding case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached Jammu and Kashmir’s separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah’s Srinagar-based house valued at Rs 21.80 lakh under anti-money laundering law in a case linked to the funding of terror activities, the agency said on Friday.

Situated at Botshah Colony in Srinagar’s Sanat Nagar area, the property is in the name of Shabir Ahmad Shah. The property was seized under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The property was attached in an ongoing money laundering case registered on May 30, 2017, naming Shabir Ahmad Shah and Lashkar-e-Taiba co-founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and others under various sections of IPC and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967.

During the course of an investigation, the ED said it was revealed that Shabir Ahmad Shah was actively involved in the activities of fuelling unrest in Kashmir Valley by way of stone pelting, processions, protests, bandhs, hartals and other subversive activities.

Further, an investigation under PMLA revealed that Shabir Ahmad Shah was involved in receiving funds from the terrorist organisation Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) and other terrorist outfits based in Pakistan as well as from the Pakistani establishment through hawala and various other means and channels.

The ED said, “these funds were then being used for fuelling and supporting militant activities in the Kashmir Valley”.