Post 2019, the Union Government has succeeded in cracking various high profile terror modules across Jammu and Kashmir that have been instrumental in funding and sponsoring terrorism. This has led to scrutiny of various civil society and non-governmental organizations allegedly having a role in managing finances at various levels to support the unlawful activities in the region.
Not only across the Security and intelligence grid, the nationalists and peaceful citizens in Kashmir have equally woken up to the concern. Fifty-year-old Mohammad Ishaq shares the same apprehensions despite being one of the members of a local mosque committee in north Kashmir’s Baramulla town.
Ishaq went to the Deputy Commissioner and senior police officer of the district to seek their intervention and directions for maintaining the official records of the mosque donations.
“We have no official bank account of our Mosque Committee. Whatever the donations pour in from the faithful for the welfare of the mosque remains with two people who are accountable to none,” he told the Organizer.
Ishaq approached the senior police officer and sought his direction for the committee to open the bank account, however, he was told that the police can intervene only once the Deputy Commissioner passes the directions.
“I went to the Deputy Commissioner, she too refused to intervene and suggested settling down issues at community level,” he said adding that the matter is about national security not of any personal dispute.
Ishaq shares no grudges with any of the members selected for the job but he wants the money donated by people for the welfare of the mosque must not be used for any unlawful activities.
“How can you trust anyone that the money meant for sacred causes is not used for any unlawful activities since there is no account and record maintained by the members of the committee. We want our children and area safe from any anti-social and anti-national activities,” said Nazir Ahmad, another resident of the area.
This is not the single mosque in Kashmir that faces challenges at community level to maintain financial records. There are hundreds of mosques in Kashmir alone which receive donations in millions but the committees continue to evade responsibility.
The residents of Sopore village share the same concerns who have been insisting committee members to open the account in a bank to receive and spend donations to keep the record clean and transparent.
“We too face the same challenges and are being harassed,” said Imtiyaz Ahmad.
These mosque committees are highly influential across the region and can wield considerable influence in power corridors. The locals feel helpless in holding them accountable for their misdemeanors.
“They can easily provoke religious sentiments among the people and even can shunt us out from the mosques if we question them to invoke transparency and accountability in the system,” said Ghulam Qadir.
However, it is not the case with every mosque committee. While most of the mosques in towns and newly developed colonies have transparent working systems, the problem is more prevalent in rural pockets.
In the last over three decades of terrorism in Kashmir, the rural pockets served as breeding ground and the people are opining that having official bank account for every mosque is necessary to ensure the money donated for the purpose is utilized properly with checks and balances.
“We receive lots of complaints regarding the fund’s misappropriation from mosque committees with no official records. In some cases, people allege bungling and corruption. However, we have no law under which we can hold them accountable,” said Advocate Taufeeq.
“There must be some direction at administrative level and the court can later intervene if anyone violates the direction. But directly in absence of any law, the Court can’t intervene and pass direction to committees to open bank accounts,” she said.
In absence of any law to regulate the finances of the mosques, locals fear that apart from corruption and bungling, it can compromise our national security.
“Post Article 370 abrogation, the government launched a massive crackdown against hawala funding and drugs smuggling in Kashmir that was serving as fuel to terrorism finances. An extra layer of security is required to ensure locally the funds are not generated through any means by the anti-national elements,” a letter submitted by Ishaq reads which was returned unmarked by the concerned deputy commissioner.
White collar terrorism in Kashmir
In August, the security forces cracked three high profile terror cases involving a professor and senior most bank officer and a cleric.
Islamic Cleric: Sarjan Barkati, a separatist leader who was known as Azadi Chahca in Kashmir is already arrested by State Investigation Agency (SIA) for crowd funding and misusing it for separatists and anti-India activities.
In July 2016, when Burhan Wani was killed, Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist, Barkati rose to prominence for pulling massive crowds on streets against the establishment. The police in February registered a case for illegally raising crowd funding and utilizing the same for the separatists and anti-India activities which amounts to crores of rupees.
“The case pertains to Barkati’s involvement in orchestrating an extensive fundraising campaign through crowd funding, resulting in the generation of funds amounting to crores. These funds were subsequently misused, involving money laundering and acquisition of undisclosed assets for propagation of radicalism within Kashmir,” the police statement released on August 30 reads after he was taken into custody by SIA.
Bank Officer: The Jammu Kashmir Bank on August 19 terminated the services of Sajjad Ahmad Bazaz who was serving as Chief Manager of the bank. The reports revealed that Bazaz was serving as an ISI agent providing financial support to newspapers as advertisements which were promoting separatism and anti-India agenda in Kashmir. The official investigation revealed that he had 68 bank accounts in the same bank and was actively working and promoting the interests of ISI while using the money from the bank.
Assistant professor: The Baramulla police cracked a strong terror module on August 18 and arrested 8 terror operatives along with weapons. One among them was an assistant professor who was teaching students of journalism in Baramulla Degree College. He was identified as Akther Neyaz Bhat of Tarzoo Sopore.
NGO raided: While there are dozens of terror funding cases undergoing investigations in Kashmir by National Investigation Agency (NIA), on August 2, the premier national agency cracked a whip on one of the NGO’s JKCCS which was aiding and funding terror activities in Kashmir.
Given the circumstances and prevailing situation where Pakistan is making all efforts to revive terrorism in Kashmir, there is a need to take extra security and surveillance measures without interfering in religious matters especially on crowd founding measures.
