Wednesday, February 22 2006 16:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Government has constituted two apex level committees to check the inflow of funds to terrorist or secessionist outfits in Jammu and Kashmir.

The committees, one at the Central level and the other at state level, will monitor the funding of militants through hawala means, Union Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal told the Rajya Sabha here today (Feb 22 2006).

Various agencies of the Central and State governments are coordinating among themselves and taking necessary action for tackling the menace of terrorist funding in all its dimensions, he said in a written reply.

Jaiswal said the arrest of a Dubai-based engineer in Delhi on February 3, from whom an amount of Rs 55 lakh, RDX, a detonator and a timer were recovered, confirms the involvement of Middle-East money-exchangers in hawala operations to fund militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.