'Geelani's financial transactions, claimed the officials, were being closely tracked by intelligence agencies and last year a Rs 48-lakh [$4,800,000] payment sent to him by Syed Salahuddin, the Supreme Commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, had been detected.

The next breakthrough came on May 25 this year when Imtiyaz Ahmed Bazaz, a Srinagar-based journalist, was booked under POTA. It was his interrogation, alleged the officials, that exposed the fact that Geelani and Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief Asiya Andrabi — who went underground today to evade arrest — were being used as conduits for sending funds to militant groups by UK-based Kashmiri expatriate Dr Ayub Thakur.'