Shabir Shah says terror financing case politically motivated

Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Ahmed Shah, who has been summoned by Enforcement Directorate in a terror financing case, today said it was a deliberate attempt to malign his reputation and harass him.

"I have done nothing wrong. Its a false propaganda being orchestrated by vested interests to malign my reputation. I have not done anything wrong," Shah, Chairman of Democratic Freedom Party of Jammu and Kashmir, told PTI here.

61-year-old Shah has been summoned by the ED on March 24 in a decade-old case of terror financing through 'hawala channel'.

The case relates to August 2005 of Delhi Police's Special Cell when they arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani, an alleged hawala dealer, who claimed that he has given Rs 2.25 crore to Shah.
Wani, who is at present out on a bail, has also been summoned by the ED, which registered a case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against him.

"This is based on statement of a person whom I even do not know. I have been spearheading a political movement in Kashmir and it seems I am being targeted for that," Shah said.

He said that he had not received any notice as yet and he would decide future course of action after consulting his party workers.

Wani was arrested with Rs 63 lakh he received allegedly through 'hawala' channels from the Middle East and a large amount of ammunition on August 26, 2005. He was arrested along with 5 kg RDX, 10 detonators and a foreign-made pistol with 15 live cartridges from an East of Kailash apartment in south Delhi.

During questioning, he had claimed before police that Rs 50 lakh was to be delivered to Shah and Rs 10 lakh to the Jaish-e-Mohammad 'area commander' in Srinagar Abu Baqar while the rest of the money was to be his commission.

Wani (35), who hailed from Srinagar, also claimed that he had delivered about Rs 2.25 crore to Shah and his kin in several instalments over the past year.

Official sources claimed that Shah had asked Wani to channel 'hawala' money to him from Delhi for which he was paid three per cent as commission.