In a first, the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday registered a money laundering case against ten people, including chief of banned militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen Syed Salahuddin, for alleged cross-border funding of terror activities in the country.
The ED was prompted to register the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (Act) after it took cognisance of an FIR registered by the National Investigating Agency against these people.
The central probe agency, sources said, will look into the financing and terrorist activities by Hizbul Mujahideen from Pakistan to different militant organisations in India.
NIA had last year filed its case against these ten in connection with its probe related to cross-Line of Control (LoC) trade.
Those named in the charge sheet included Salahuddin's deputy Gulam Nabi Khan alias Amir Khan, Umer Farooq Shera alias Mehboob-ul-Haq, Manzoor Ahmed Dar alias Masroor Dar, Zaffar Hussain Bhat alias Khursheed, Nazir Ahamd Dar alias Shabir Ellahi, Abdul Majeed Sofi alias Majeed Bisati and Mubarak Shah among others, they said.
Besides, Talib Ali alias Talib Hussain Lali and Mohammad Shafi Shah alias Doctor alias Dawood were charged with various provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the NIA chargesheet.
All of them, including Salahuddin, have been named in the ED case registered under the PMLA, a first regular money laundering case to probe offshore terror financing ramifications, the sources said.
In a meticulously done probe, the NIA claimed to have unearthed at least Rs 13 crore which had been pumped through cross border trade at Uri, cash couriers and normal banking channels besides the routine hawala route.
The case was registered by NIA on October 25, 2011 for alleged regular and systematic funding of Hizbul Mujahideen for carrying out terror activities.
Investigation has established that under the cover of Jammu and Kashmir Affectees Relief Trust (JKART), terror group Hizbul Mujahideen opratives based in Pakistan used to provide funds through different channels for terrorist activities in India.
During the investigation, two of the accused i.e. Mohd Shafi Shah alias Dawood and Talib Lali alias Talib Hussain Lali, were arrested by the NIA.
ED, the sources said, will look at confiscating some assets of these accused identified in the country.