MUMBAI: During the overnight raids carried out in the city as part of the joint exercise with the Uttar Pradesh Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS), the Maharashtra ATS on Thursday arrested two hawala racketeers who had allegedly funded ISI agents in India.
“Police had recovered from the accused concrete evidences of money transferred to other ISI agents in India on specific instructions received from Pakistan”, ATS chief Atulchandra Kulkarni said here on Thursday.
The ATS arrested 37-year-old Altaf Hanif Qureshi from Pydhoni area of South Mumbai on Wednesday night after his name propped up during interrogation of ISI agent Aftab Wajid Ali, who was arrested by the UP ATS from Faizabad.
Altaf’s interrogation led the police to Javed Iqbal Naviwala, who was picked up from Yusuf Manzil building of Agreepada area of South Mumbai on Thursday morning. It later came to light that Javed controlled the Hawala business and Altaf worked for him.
Javed was in constant touch with ISI officials in Pakistan and had been getting instructions from the agency to deposit money in Aftab’s bank accounts. Javed then used to pass on the instructions to Altaf, who used to deposit the money to the said bank accounts, said the ATS official.
During interrogation of Javed and Altaf, a few more names cropped up and more arrests are likely, the ATS official said.