After Hawala funds, agencies turn focus on JeI’s real estate business in J&K

After blocking the flow of Hawala money separatists and militants in recent years, the focus of security agencies in Kashmir has shifted now to unearth and seize real estate worth hundreds of crores of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) J&K.

Since early November J&K state investigation agency (SIA) has sealed hundreds of properties, including apple orchards, shopping complexes, agricultural land, and residential properties of the politico-socio-religious organization which was banned by the Center in February 2019.

This operation is part of an ongoing crackdown on the banned outfit, which is accused of fanning radicalism, separatism, and militant activities in the union territory.

Sources said that most of these had been acquired by the banned organisation since 1990. “The modus-operandi of the Jamaat was to buy properties with terror funds in the name of its sympathisers. As the banned outfit has huge influence within the government system, it was easier for them not to get the best deals hassle-free and make huge profits,” they said.

A senior officer of the SIA associated with the investigation and seizure of the Jamaat properties said not only the money coming from Pakistan and other countries to the Jamaat and its one-time armed wing – Hizb-ul-Mujhaideen – was pumped into the real estate business, but the funds collected locally from contractors and other businessmen were also utilised in this business.

“The Jamaat and the Hizbul own real estate worth thousands of crores in Kashmir and Pakistan. As the value of the real estate keeps on increasing with every passing day, the two banned outfits have no dearth of funds for carrying out subversive activities in the UT,” he said.

“Hefty profits from real estate business have been funding subversive elements for the last three decades. It was, indeed, a quiet operation without any money trail. But after a proper investigation, it has come to the fore that a contractor network had become a deep asset for the separatist-militant nexus and in coming times, it will be unearthed,” the officer revealed.

Pertinently, the SIA was constituted by the J&K government last November on the lines of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), to handle most high-profile terror cases in the Union Territory.

The SIA maintains that the seizure of the Jamaat assets will “choke the availability of funds for secessionist activities and to dismantle the ecosystem of anti-national elements and terror networks hostile to India's sovereignty.”