Agence France Presse

New Delhi, February 19:

Indian police arrested a member of Jammu and Kashmir’s main separatist alliance for allegedly carrying fake currency soon after he left Pakistan’s diplomatic mission in New Delhi, media reports said.

The arrest of the Sheikh Abdul Aziz came days after the two sides agreed to start a bus service between Indian and Pakistani-held zones of Kashmir, a move seen as boosting an ongoing peace process.

No comment was immediately available from police on the arrest on Thursday. But media reports said police caught Aziz, 53, a former rebel and executive member of the hardline wing of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference, carrying 100,000 rupees in counterfeit Indian bills.

He was also carrying 94,000 United Arab Emirates dirhams, the reports said. Police were tipped off that Aziz, who arrived on Wednesday in New Delhi from Kashmir, was to collect false currency from the Pakistani High Commission.