Demonetisation drives Kashmir Valley agitation into hawala dead-end

Home ministry officials told Hindustan Times that separatist leaders in the state have communicated their concerns to the agitating cadres

Updated on: Nov 11, 2016, 01:20:16 IST

Hindustan Times | By Shishir Gupta, New Delhi

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The Modi government’s decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes is bad news indeed for the ongoing agitation in Kashmir that is funded largely through illegal hawala channels. Home ministry officials told Hindustan Times that separatist leaders in the state have communicated their concerns to the agitating cadres.

More than 90 civilians have been killed and thousands injured during rising violence amid protests against Indian rule in Kashmir, sparked by the killing of Burhaan Wani on July 8. (AFP file photo)

“The J&K police has reported to New Delhi that separatists are flummoxed by the move as a result of which the four-month long agitation may be on the backburner. The separatist leaders rely on hawala channels through Bangladesh, Nepal and Dubai for funding the agitation. It is these sources that have dried up,” a home ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

Other officials say that CM Mehbooba Mufti Sayeed’s support for a dialogue between civil society leaders and hardliners like SAS Geelani has weakened the impact of the demonetisation move that would otherwise have pushed separatists on the backfoot. The Centre is opposed to any dialogue or any engagement with separatists.

Top intelligence officials say the Kashmir agitation will be on the backburner for at least four to five months, the time required to replenish separatist coffers through the black money route. “The demonetisation move has put hawala operations on hold as the new banknotes are still to be available in large numbers,” said a senior official.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More