Last week this column asserted that for the war against terrorism to succeed the money trail must be unearthed. Home minister Advani made the same point to British foreign secretary Jack Straw. Advani complained about British inaction allowing Dr Ayub Thakur, a major source of funds for Kashmiri militants, to function freely in Britain.
Thakur is chairman of the World Kashmir Freedom Movement, based in Britain. In January 1998, investigations unearthed hawala transactions related to transfer of funds by Dr Thakur to Hurriyat leaders and to Syed Salahuddin, the Hizbul Mujahideen chief.
Initially, Dr Thakur's cause was encouraged by Lord Avebury, who was chairman of the UK parliamentary group on human rights. In 1998, Lord Avebury visited Kashmir and conferred with the Hurriyat leaders. He was disillusioned by their lack of faith in the democratic process. Somewhere along the line the Hurriyat leadership had slipped out of British influence to come under the spell of Pakistan. ISI money talked louder.
What Advani said to Jack Straw therefore was relevant. But what he did not say is even more relevant. Thakur, along with Mohini Jain, a British citizen, Dubai resident Tariq Bhai and Moolchand Shah from Mumbai, comprised the hawala network that passed funds unearthed in the Jain hawala case. These conduits simultaneously served Kashmiri militants and India's leading politicians.
Moolchand Shah was Dawood Ibrahim's lieutenant. So was probably Tariq Bhai. But even after a decade, the CBI never succeeded in identifying him. Disregarding national security, the politicians lied to protect the hawala network funding terrorism. After all, the same network served them too. Had the politicians acted then, terrorism might have been contained. Advani would not have been seeking Jack Straw's help today.
The evidence in the Jain hawala case was overwhelming. Four politicians identified in the diaries had even admitted to the media that they received Jain's money. But the CBI deliberately withheld evidence from the courts. The same probe that convicted the militants exonerated all the politicians. The judges were led into making wrong judgements. Intellectual pimps masquerading as editors wrote signed columns to rubbish the charges. The case was buried. But is it dead? Truth has a nasty habit of returning to haunt the guilty.
Life is a strange mixture
When the devil quotes scripture —
Rulers whitewash the picture
And hypocrisy becomes a fixture!
