At least 10 militants, who had crossed over to Pakistan, are involved in cross-LoC trade, officials sources said Wednesday.
These Jammu and Kashmir natives are either based inIslamabad and Rawalpindi in Pakistan or Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administeredKashmir (PaK), they said.
“They operate businesses ranging from almonds, dry dates,dry fruits to mangoes as part of the modus operandi to send money to fuelunrest in Jammu and Kashmir on behalf of the Pakistani intelligence agencyInter-Services Intelligence (ISI)”, the officials said.
“The 10 Pakistan-based militants were involved infunnelling illegal weapons, narcotics and fake currency into the Valleymisusing the recently suspended cross LoC trade routes,” a senior securityofficial said.
Enquiries conducted and record checks have established thatthese individuals have opened trading firms in Pakistan and were active in LoCtrade, the official said.
MHA last week indefinitely suspended cross-LoC trade at twopoints along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir following reports that itwas being “misused” by elements from across the border to “smuggleweapons, narcotics and fake currency”.
The LoC trade across Chakan-Da-Bagh and Salamabad wasintended as a confidence building measure for the population living in Jammuand Kashmir and across the Line of Control (LoC) in PaK.
Security officials said trading firms under the control ofthe 10 militants were doing LoC trade with Indian trading firms which weremostly operated by their own relatives on the Indian side, another officialsaid.
“The channel of LoC trade, meant to facilitate exchangeof goods of common use between local populations across the LoC in Jammu andKashmir, was being exploited to fund “illegal and anti-national activities” inJammu and Kashmir.
“Money was being transferred to militant organisationsand anti-India elements by these traders,” the official said.
The government will revisit the issue of resuming the LoC trade after stricter measures and systems are put in place to address these issues.