Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir State Investigation Agency (SIA) has during a probe into a terror funding case found that Bitcoin trade has also been used for fuelling violence and militant activities in the Union Territory.
Bitcoin, which was invented in 2008 and began use in 2009, is a decentralized digital currency that can be transferred on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain.
The SIA has issued a public notice seeking help for identification of the man behind militant financing through Bitcoin in J&K. It has put out the photograph of the accused and said that the public is urged to provide any information that may assist in identifying him. “All information provided may assist in identifying the accused. All information provided will be kept confidential,” the public notice says, adding that any information leading to the identification and arrest of the accused shall be suitably rewarded.
Following registering a case in the counterintelligence police station at Srinagar under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Indian Penal Code, the SIA had in August 2022 raided and searched the houses of seven persons including two women allegedly involved in terror funding through Bitcoin cryptocurrency trade.
The residential houses of seven suspects were searched in Kashmir Valley’s frontier districts of Kupwara and Baramulla and in Mendhar area of Jammu region’s Poonch district which also falls close to the Line of Control (LoC).
The SIA sources said that the mastermind of the terror funding through Bitcoin trade is based in Pakistan and is known “who with active support of the Pakistani intelligence agencies and in connivance with (terror) organization(s) based in Pakistan has been pumping slush money to their agents in J&K for further distribution among (terror) organisation(s), secessionist(s) for fuelling mass violence and (terror) activities in J&K.”
The persons whose houses were searched by the SIA sleuths assisted by the J&K police and the CRPF in August 2022 were identified as Zahida Bano, Ghulam Mujataba Deedad, Tamjeeda Begum, Yasir Ahmad Mir, Mohammad Sayeed Masoodi, Farooq Ahmad of Gagrian and Imran Chowdhary.
The SIA has claimed that the “dirty money” originating from Pakistan has reached these persons and the transfer of money has been layered to prevent backward tracing of its origin. It had said, “While several accounts-in-the-middle that have been used to layer the money are outside J&K, the effective whitewashing of the Pakistani money has taken place through exploitation of loopholes in the international bitcoin trade.”
