SRINAGAR: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday carried out searches at four locations in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar in an alleged terror-financing network case.
Officials said the sleuths of the ED carried out search operations at four locations across Srinagar in connection with an ongoing investigation into a terror-financing network.
According to officials, the investigation centres on allegations that Umar Adil Dar was associated with the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) as an Over Ground Worker (OGW) and was involved in activities linked to the outfit.
Officials said Dar and some of his associates had earlier been apprehended while allegedly possessing a substantial amount of cash along with literature stated to be associated with the banned organisation.
Dar had also reportedly spent nearly four years in jail in connection with a case involving alleged separatist and anti-national activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
The latest ED operation is aimed at examining suspected financial transactions, identifying possible sources and channels of funding, tracing alleged proceeds of crime and establishing whether any financial links existed with handlers operating from across the border, officials said.
The searches are part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to investigate the suspected financial infrastructure allegedly supporting terror-related activities.
Further details are awaited as the search operations continue.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) plays a key role in India's strategy to dismantle financial networks that support terrorism, using the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to freeze assets, seize properties, and investigate cross-border and narco-terror funding.
The ED, alongside agencies like the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and State Investigation Agency (SIA), has targeted assets tied to separatists, terror groups, and overground workers (OGWs). Properties linked to figures such as Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, separatist leader Shabir Shah, and others have faced identification and attachment valued at crores of rupees.
The ED conducts simultaneous multi-location raids targeting handlers involved in cross-border smuggling, illegal infiltration networks, and narcotics-linked terror financing (such as investigations involving former ministers and organised syndicates).
India’s domestic counter-terror financing mechanism operates under the Ministry of Home Affairs - Combatting Financing of Terrorism (CFT) Cell, and is aligned with global standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).