MUZAFFARABAD, March 26: An AJK-based leader of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) has refuted the Indian allegation that he has given $100,000 to any person for Mr Yasin Malik, the chief of the JKLF and executive member of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC).

Mr Altaf Qadri, who is also the secretary-general of the AJK chapter of the APHC, said the allegations aimed at maligning the freedom movement and its leaders.

Occupied Kashmir police said on Monday that they had seized $100,000 on Sunday night in Kud, 200 kilometres south of Srinagar, from Shazia Begum and Mushtaq Dar, who confessed during interrogation to have received the money from Mr Qadri in Kathmandu last week for Mr Malik.

“The Indian government has concocted the story to defame Mr Malik and the JKLF,” he told Dawn when contacted by telephone.

He said he had not travelled to Nepal for over six years, and, therefore “there was no question of giving money to anyone in Kathmandu. Even I do not know any Shazia Begum.”

It was strange, he said, the woman and Mr Dar travelled all the way from Nepal to the occupied valley without any interception or obstruction at any point.

There were many other signs that proved that the Indian authorities had planted both of them, Mr Qadri said and added: “But Mr Malik is known for his integrity and high morals, and cannot not be discredited with such mean attempts.”

He also pointed out that the JKLF chief had a strong stand on the “poll ploy” that India was planning to conduct in the occupied Kashmir in October, and Mr Qadri had announced to foil the Indian designs through peaceful means.

On the one hand India was creating hype about “free and fair elections” and on the other it was employing brute force and utter dishonesty to pressurize the Kashmiris, he said.

“The arrest of Mr Malik under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance has once again exposed India’s hypocrisy,” he said.