nargis

The NIA on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the proceeds of the 2,988-kg heroin consignment that was intercepted in Mundra port by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in September 2021 were “used…for funding terrorist activities of” the banned Pakistan-based “Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)”.

The agency also said a protected witness in the case had deposed that Lateef Rather, a slain operative of LeT proxy The Resistance Front (TRF), had told him that one “Md. Iqbal Awan and Afghanistan/Pakistan based drug smugglers in December 2021… discussed… Kashmir issue, Article 370” with him… “Lateef directed representative code name Malik to Delhi/Haryana border for collection of (`) 10 and 15 lakh” from one Haryana man… “the money was used for procuring weapons and ammunition for new recruits of Lashkar-e-Taiba”, the agency told the court.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati appearing for the NIA conveyed this to a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N K Singh while opposing the bail plea of a key accused, Harpreet Singh Talwar alias Kabir Talwar of Delhi, in the case. The law officer said the narcotics was trafficked to India “disguised as legal imports in the form of semi-processed talc stones and bituminous coal” and “the proceeds… were sent back to the consignors, who used these funds for funding terrorist activities of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)”.

She said “the legal export-import channel was used after finding loopholes and circumventing the system”. The ASG said a total of six consignments were imported to India, sent by the same consignors from Afghanistan. The sixth was intercepted at Mundra port. “The Narco-traffickers were located in Afghanistan and were sending heroin via Iran and Pakistan to India (with help of ISI and Iranian middle men),” Bhati said.

“…a large consignment of 2,988.21 kgs of Heroin was brought from Afghanistan via Bandar Abbas, Iran and was imported to India in the name of Aashi Trading Company and the same was intercepted… we have 12 wanted accused persons based in Dubai, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan,” she said.

The ASG said one of the key witnesses in the case, a retired customs official, was found dead under suspicious circumstances. “He is the customs official who cleared the consignment in Kolkata. There was money received in his account. When we examined him… he said he would… make a statement and in the night, he was found dead. That aspect we are still going to investigate because at that time he was not cooperating.”

The counsel appearing for Talwar, however, said the accused “was in jail at that time. They themselves had said it’s suicide… Sometimes witnesses do commit suicide when they are put under pressure”.

Investigations have already revealed the mastermind of the ‘narco-terror’ is Pakistan’s ISI and Pakistan-backed banned terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba. As such considering the totality of the matter in the respectful submission of the petitioner bail ought not be granted in the instant matter so as to prevent miscarriage of justice and obfuscation of the trial of instant international conspiracy of heinous nature, the NIA said.

Bhati also referred to Talwar receiving consignments of perfumes and dates, adding, “it’s the case of the prosecution that the perfumes and the dates are actually the consideration he is getting in kind for carrying out this business, for using this business channel”. The ASG urged the court to keep in mind the magnitude of the crime and said “is the biggest the country has ever seen… the international price of this is Rs 21,000 crore. That is the amount of money that is being funnelled into the terrorist organisations”.

Senior Advocate C A Sundaram who, too, represented Talwar said there was no evidence to link him to the charges of heroin smuggling.

The section also gives tax authorities the power to “gain access by overriding the access code to any said computer system, or virtual digital space, where the access code thereof is not available.” That text appears in the same paragraph describing powers to break down doors or crack safes.

“Virtual digital space” is defined as follows:

Email servers; Social media account; Online investment account, trading account, banking account, etc.; Any website used for storing details of ownership of any asset; Remote server or cloud servers; Digital application platforms; Any other space of similar nature.

The Wise And Brilliant Israel Apologist

• Caitlin Johnstone

I used to be pro-Palestinian, you know. I thought Israel was wrong for carpet bombing Gaza and using siege warfare on civilians.

But then I ran into a very wise Israel apologist who changed my way of looking at things forever.

I was walking down the street and I saw him leaning against a lamp post, smoking a pipe as wise men do.

“Your shirt says Free Palestine,” he said from behind a plume of smoke.

“Yep!” I replied.

“So I guess that means you love Hamas then?” spake he.

I stopped in my tracks. I’d never thought of it that way before.

Could it be? Could my opposition to murdering civilians really be indicative of a deep affection for a Gazan militant group? Maybe I really did love Hamas and think everything it did on October 7 was great and wonderful?

“Is this really how I want to live my life?” I thought to myself.

“I — I — I…” I said out loud.

“Or perhaps,” he said with a raised eyebrow, “you just HATE JEWS??”

I fell to my knees.

Oh my God. He really had a point. What possible reason could anyone have for opposing military explosives being dropped on buildings full of children besides a seething lifelong hatred of adherents to the religion of Judaism? How could anyone possibly oppose siege warfare tactics which cut off civilians from food and water and electricity and fuel and medical supplies unless they harbored dangerously negative opinions about members of a small Abrahamic faith?

“Who… who are you?” I asked.

“That’s of no consequence,” he said, casually blowing a smoke ring through another larger smoke ring.

“But… but the children,” I stammered as my entire worldview crumbled before my eyes. “The civilians! They’re dying! Isn’t it bad that they’re dying?”

And then he delivered the coup de grâce.

“Have you considered,” he said before a pregnant pause, “… that all of those deaths are the fault of Hamas?”

It was like a 50 megaton nuclear explosion went off inside my brain.

I fell flat on my back. The world was spinning. A trickle of blood ran down into my hair from my ear.

I felt all the anti-colonialism leaving my body. I suddenly could no longer remember why I thought it was bad to rain down military explosives on a densely populated concentration camp.

Everything went black.

When I finally came to, the mysterious stranger was gone. But his wisdom and profound insights into Israel and Gaza will always live on in my heart.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/trump-administration-accidentally-texted-me-its-war-plans/682151/ I can't believe they're actually this stupid.