Written by Praveen Swami | New Delhi | Updated: June 28, 2015 11:00 am
London-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement activist Tariq Mir told police in the United Kingdom that the party’s top leadership held a series of secret meetings with India’s Research and Analysis Wing in the mid-1990s, documents obtained by The Sunday Express show.
At secret meetings in Rome, Vienna, Zurich, Salzburg and Prague, the MQM leadership asked for $1.5 million in assistance, Mir alleged.
The BBC had touched off a political firestorm in Pakistan last week, quoting “an authoritative Pakistani source” as saying that senior MQM officials had told police in the United Kingdom that “the party was receiving Indian funding”. The report quoted Pakistani officials as claiming that hundreds of MQM militants had been trained by India over the last decade in “explosives, weapons and sabotage”.
Mir’s statement, redacted portions of which are with this newspaper, was made in an interview at the Edgware police station on May 30, 2012, as authorities opened an investigation into alleged money-laundering by the MQM leadership. No charges have been brought in the case so far, though 500,000 is alleged to have been recovered in raids.
In Mir’s account, RAW made contact with the MQM in 1994, leading to a series of meetings in European cities. “We would never travel directly to where we were meeting,” Mir told police. “For example, [we would] travel to Rome via Frankfurt. [The] Indians always decided the dates and venues. We were given only two days notice. We met in five-star hotels, at their arrangement.”
Interestingly, Mir claimed that New Delhi’s secret envoys made no specific demands in return for the funding. “I have no idea what we could give them in return,” he explained to police. “[Even] when we were in the government, we had no power whilst in the government. When I met the Indians, I did not hear us say anything specific we could do for them.”
Later in his testimony, Mir speculated that “to my understanding, training was done — firearms training. Going back to 1996, when [the] MQM was founded, it provided training. I assume that this was included as a part of our talks with the Indians”.
For his part, Mir emphatically stated that he “was not involved in weapons training or funding training”. “The largest amount of money I ever received was for a house purchase, but I do not know what part of that funding came from India.”
The Indian funds, Mir went on, were routed through Muhammad Anwar — the second most influential figure in …continued
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/in...e-in-the-90s-gave-money/#sthash.Y5eVBO8G.dpuf
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/british-police-documents-raw-met-mqm-in-europe-in-the-90s-gave-money/
London-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement activist Tariq Mir told police in the United Kingdom that the party’s top leadership held a series of secret meetings with India’s Research and Analysis Wing in the mid-1990s, documents obtained by The Sunday Express show.
At secret meetings in Rome, Vienna, Zurich, Salzburg and Prague, the MQM leadership asked for $1.5 million in assistance, Mir alleged.
The BBC had touched off a political firestorm in Pakistan last week, quoting “an authoritative Pakistani source” as saying that senior MQM officials had told police in the United Kingdom that “the party was receiving Indian funding”. The report quoted Pakistani officials as claiming that hundreds of MQM militants had been trained by India over the last decade in “explosives, weapons and sabotage”.
Mir’s statement, redacted portions of which are with this newspaper, was made in an interview at the Edgware police station on May 30, 2012, as authorities opened an investigation into alleged money-laundering by the MQM leadership. No charges have been brought in the case so far, though 500,000 is alleged to have been recovered in raids.
In Mir’s account, RAW made contact with the MQM in 1994, leading to a series of meetings in European cities. “We would never travel directly to where we were meeting,” Mir told police. “For example, [we would] travel to Rome via Frankfurt. [The] Indians always decided the dates and venues. We were given only two days notice. We met in five-star hotels, at their arrangement.”
Interestingly, Mir claimed that New Delhi’s secret envoys made no specific demands in return for the funding. “I have no idea what we could give them in return,” he explained to police. “[Even] when we were in the government, we had no power whilst in the government. When I met the Indians, I did not hear us say anything specific we could do for them.”
Later in his testimony, Mir speculated that “to my understanding, training was done — firearms training. Going back to 1996, when [the] MQM was founded, it provided training. I assume that this was included as a part of our talks with the Indians”.
For his part, Mir emphatically stated that he “was not involved in weapons training or funding training”. “The largest amount of money I ever received was for a house purchase, but I do not know what part of that funding came from India.”
The Indian funds, Mir went on, were routed through Muhammad Anwar — the second most influential figure in …continued
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/in...e-in-the-90s-gave-money/#sthash.Y5eVBO8G.dpuf
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/british-police-documents-raw-met-mqm-in-europe-in-the-90s-gave-money/
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