SIA sleuths carried out raids at Baramulla and Kupwara districts of north Kashmir and in Poonch district of Jammu region.
In a sensational revelation, State Investigation Agency (SIA) Wednesday unearthed a nexus and found out that Pakistan spy agency ISI was using Bitcoin trade to fund terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.
The SIA sleuths, accompanied by police and CRPF personnel, carried out raids at Baramulla and Kapwara district of north Kashmir and in Poonch district of Jammu region.
A police spokesman said the SIA searched houses of seven suspects in Poonch, Baramulla, Kupwara and Handwara in connection with investigation of an ongoing terror-funding case.
He said that the case pertains to terror financing via Bitcoin trade. “ Details that are being investigated into at the initial stage include a mastermind in Pakistan who with active support of Pakistani intelligence agencies and in connivance with proscribed terrorist organisation(s) based in Pakistan has been pumping slush money to their agents in J&K for further distribution among terrorist organisation(s), secessionist(s) for fueling mass violence and terrorism activities in J&K, “ the spokesman said.
“The Pakistani mastermind has been comprehensively identified. His particulars, however, is being kept confidential because other agents connected with him are not alerted,” he added.
The SIA searched the houses of Zahida Banio, Mujataba Deewdads, Tamjeeda Begum (all residents of Kupwara district), Yasir Ahmad Mir and Mohammad Sayed Masoodi (both residents of Baramulla), Farooq Ahmad and Imran Chowdhary of Poonch district.
“Preliminary investigation revealed evidence that the dirty money originating from Pakistan has reached these persons. The transfer of money has been layered to prevent backward tracing of its origin, the investigation has revealed,” the SIA investigations revealed.
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While several accounts-in-the-middle that have been used to layer the money are outside J&K, the effective whitewashing of the Pakistani money has taken place through exploitation of loopholes international Bitcoin trade, it added.
During today’s searches, incriminating material believed to be hidden in digital devices, SIM cards, mobile phones and document, having a bearing on the investigation have been recovered and seized.
The SIA was constituted by the J&K government in November last year on the lines of National Investigation Agency (NIA) to handle high-profile terror cases in the Union Territory.
The CID Chief of J&K police heads the agency as its Director and the agency has powers to suo-moto register FIRs. For the last several years, high profile military and terror-funding cases in J&K were handed over to the NIA for probe.
