Exclusive: After Hurriyat arrests, Srinagar businessman Zahoor Watali under intelligence radar

India's intelligence establishment is moving swiftly to choke off every source of support to perpetrators of trouble in the Kashmir Valley, zeroing in on suspected conduits for terrorist funding, highly-placed officials said.

According to most-senior intelligence officials, the probe into the bankrolling of the unrest has widened following India Today's scathing expose of the Hurriyat's Pakistani financing. Seven separatist leaders have already been arrested.

Under the radar now are various ISI-backed businesses funnelling funds to separatists and terrorists.

A Srinagar businessman, Zahoor Watali, tops the list of alleged financers of Kashmiri troublemakers, highest-ranking intelligence officials told India Today.

A mover and shaker of Kashmir's high society, Watali is resident of Srinagar's Baghat Barzulla neighbourhood. He's known for his proximity to political leaders across the spectrum, opposition and ruling parties alike.

Watali's business empire spans from Kashmir to the UAE to Europe, spread across real-estate and international trade.

HURRIYAT'S MONEYBAG

But intelligence officials disclosed to India Today they suspect his companies were a facade hiding money laundering and terror finance.

"The man's believed to be the Hurriyat's moneybag," said a top source. Intelligence officials, poring over Watali's every financial transaction, found he maintained an NRI account in 2004-05 at a leading bank in New Delhi without having spent the required 180 days overseas for the foreign-residency status.

For months, he received monthly inward remittances of Rs 2 lakh-Rs 2.6 lakh from Dubai into his FCNRE bank account in the national capital, the sources revealed.

Watali, intelligence officials said, also had an account at the UAE's RAK Bank, from where he transferred more than Rs 53.60 lakh from March to December in 2011.

Documents accessed by India Today showed the money was credited into his account at the J&K Bank's Air Cargo branch in Srinagar.

MYSTERIOUS TRANSACTIONS

The original source of these sums, according to intelligence sources, is a mystery.

Intelligence officials have found out Watali, however, never declared these inflows in his annual returns. Further, his bank statement from the period reveals large amounts were moved from his J&K bank account to his construction companies, his wife Sarwa Begum and to a medical college in Jammu.

Watali's properties were part of addresses the NIA raided in Kashmir and Delhi after India Today uncovered Hurriyat-Pakistan connections.

Investigators are now questioning him for his alleged links with the ISI.

According to intelligence officials, Watali's top-ranking friends in the rogue spy agency include Brig. Mir Hafiz Sohail, Brig (retired) Javeed Aziz Khan and Maj-Gen. (retired) Rashid Qureshi.

Watali also had ties with Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan and Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry, the former prime ministers of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), the sources disclosed.

This businessman's police record, intelligence sources said, dates back to 1990, when he was first arrested for allegedly harbouring Kashmiri militants.

He was taken into custody again in 1994.

Once a car driver of Abdul Ghani Lone, the slain separatist leader, Watali is now believed to have penetrating connections in the ISI.

The NIA is examining his deals, local and global, bit by bit, top officials said.

India Today reporters reached his properties in Srinagar, but Watali was not available for comment.

Also read:

India Today expose on Hurriyat echoes in Lok Sabha, Jaitley says demonetisation squeezed terror funds

Caught on Camera: How Pakistan funds Kashmiri separatists to burn the Valley - India Today Exclusive

NIA gets 10-day custody of 7 Hurriyat leaders: 10 Developments

Also watch:

India Today's report from inside an LeT rally; Top Hurriyat financier unmasked; more