Now, ISI handlers use shrine donations to fund terrorism in India

The donation boxes of most of the shrines are not registered, which makes it easy for ISI to use them as funds for terrorism. This was revealed after sleuths interrogated an ISI spy in Barmer- Deena Khan-who revealed how the nexus worked. Deena Khan's handlers in Pakistan used to instruct him over the phone as to how to distribute the money among other spies.

Intelligence agencies of Rajasthan have found that ISI handlers allegedly set up donation boxes at places of worship so that they could easily use the money for funding terrorism in Pakistan. The information was gathered by the sleuths as they were interrogating ISI spy Deena Khan who was arrested from a village in Barmer district. A senior intelligence officer, speaking to TOI said,"Khan revealed that he was in-charge of a small Mazar in Chohtan village of Barmer district and distributed Rs 3.5 lakh of Mazar's donation to other spies like Satram Maheswari and his nephew Vinod Maheswari."

It was also revealed that Deena's handlers in Pakistan would call him and ask him to distribute the money among other spies accordingly. Some of the other spies on this side of the border were Satram and Haji Khan. They were already arrested by the border intelligence earlier this year for sharing confidential information about the movement of Indian troops in the international border. 

Further probing into Deena's involvement, the sleuths found that it was easy to get money from the donation boxes since they were unaccounted for and many shrines did not even have registers to keep an account of the money collected. The police suspect that the ISI may have set up many such donation boxes at multiple locations in border areas to fund its espionage activities. The officer said, "It is difficult to distribute money through hawala network as it can be traced. Hence, the donation boxes are easy way to collect money and distribute it among the spies."

Intelligence agencies are now keeping a close watch on the spike in make-shift places of worship along the border areas. Deputy IG, R Suhasaa said, "The district superintendents of police have been directed to keep a close vigil at such places. With enhanced coordination and strategic planning, we have traced the network of foreign intelligence."