In a shocking development, two freshly minted notes of Rs&nbsp;2,000 were recovered from the bodies of the two terrorists, who were gunned down today in an encounter with security forces in Bandipora, Jammu and Kashmir.

The Army and the police in a joint operation had cordoned off the area to smoke out the two terrorists who were holed up and had opened fire, thus engaging in a heavy gunbattle early in the morning.

Yesterday, four masked men with arms along with them entered into a bank at a state-run Jammu and Kashmir branch in Malpora and left with Rs 13 lakh largely comprising of the scrapped 500 and 1,000 note currencies.

Earlier, three masked men had looted a bank of Rs 2.25 lakh in Kulgam district on October 25.

While announcing the radical step of demonetisation on November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured that this move was targeting tax evasion, corruption and forgery and also stressed that terror attacks including those facilitated by Pakistan often include counterfeit 500-rupee notes.

(ANI)

The two terrorists were gunned down today in an encounter with security forces in the Bandipora region

In a shocking development, two freshly minted notes of Rs 2,000 were recovered from the bodies of the two terrorists, who were gunned down today in an encounter with security forces in Bandipora, Jammu and Kashmir. The Army and the police in a joint operation had cordoned off the area to smoke out the two terrorists who were holed up and had opened fire, thus engaging in a heavy gunbattle early in the morning. Yesterday, four masked men with arms along with them entered into a bank at a state-run Jammu and Kashmir branch in Malpora and left with Rs 13 lakh largely comprising of the scrapped 500 and 1,000 note currencies. Earlier, three masked men had looted a bank of Rs 2.25 lakh in Kulgam district on October 25. While announcing the radical step of demonetisation on November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured that this move was targeting tax evasion, corruption and forgery and also stressed that terror attacks including those facilitated by Pakistan often include counterfeit 500-rupee notes. (ANI)

New Rs 2000 notes recovered from bodies of terrorists killed in Kashmir

They had traditionally been the money lenders of a large section of people in times of crisis in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. But now, this community has fallen on hard times themselves.

They are the Kabuliwalas&nbsp;of Kolkata.&nbsp;

The community came to be known as Kabuliwalas&nbsp;because most of them came from&nbsp;Kabul. They are Afghan migrants who came to this eastern Indian city of Kolkata from Pashtunistan, a region inhabited by Pashtuns in&nbsp;modern-day Afghanistan and&nbsp;Pakistan, in search of greener pastures in the 19th century.&nbsp;

While these Kabuliwalas went from door to door selling attar (perfume), dry fruits, spices and fabrics procured from Afghanistan, over the years, they became money lenders&nbsp;who would give loans to the local populace.&nbsp;

Kabuliwalas&nbsp;are not just another ordinary community in&nbsp;Bengal. They occupy a special place in the hearts of the Bengalis, and have been immortalised in Bengali literature and cinema over the years, most notably in Rabindranath Tagore&#39;s 1892 short story named &#39;Kabuliwala&#39; where a Pathan merchant develops a deep bond with a five-year-old girl named Mini.

It is&nbsp;not surprising that the positive portrayal of Kabuliwalas in the local culture has helped the community feel very much at home in Kolkata. And it is no different for 28-year-old Nidim Khan, an Afghan who was born in Kabul and moved to Kolkata with his father about a decade back.

Nidim, like several others of his community,&nbsp;lives in north&nbsp;of Kolkata and their building is famously known as &lsquo;Khan Kothi&rsquo;, a neat and tidy house with&nbsp;minimal furniture and adorned by a&nbsp;beautiful carpet brought from Aghanistan.&nbsp;

For the last few years, Nidim&nbsp;has been assisting his father Afroz in his money lending business. But&nbsp;following the Indian government&#39;s decision to scrap the old banknotes, they like other money lenders have been trapped in a situation where&nbsp;they cannot recover the money they had given&nbsp;as loan to people.&nbsp;

&ldquo;People who had borrowed from us are repaying in old currency notes, which we cannot accept. Further, people do not have enough Rs 100 notes or the new Rs&nbsp;2,000 notes for them to repay the loans immediately,&rdquo; says Nidim, adding, &ldquo;We do not have new currency notes to give away as loans.&rdquo;

To further add to their misery, Nidim&#39;s family like most&nbsp;Kabuliwalas here do not hold bank accounts. That means they cannot go to the nearest bank and exchange the redundant banknotes.&nbsp;

&ldquo;The currency notes in our possession are of no use to us as we cannot exchange them. We do not deal in bonds and agreements. It is just a promise and trust on which our business thrives,&rdquo; says Nidim&rsquo;s father&nbsp;Afroz, adding that the government&#39;s demonetisation plan has further dented the-already struggling money lending business -- a&nbsp;sentiment that was unaniously agreed by most Kabuliwallas in town.

(WION)

The money lenders, who are originally from Afghanistan, say they don't have the new banknotes to give away as loans

They had traditionally been the money lenders of a large section of people in times of crisis in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. But now, this community has fallen on hard times themselves. They are the Kabuliwalas of Kolkata. The community came to be known as Kabuliwalas because most of them came from Kabul. They are Afghan migrants who came to this eastern Indian city of Kolkata from Pashtunistan, a region inhabited by Pashtuns in modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, in search of greener pastures in the 19th century. While these Kabuliwalas went from door to door selling attar (perfume), dry fruits, spices and fabrics procured from Afghanistan, over the years, they became money lenders who would give loans to the local populace. Kabuliwalas are not just another ordinary community in Bengal. They occupy a special place in the hearts of the Bengalis, and have been immortalised in Bengali literature and cinema over the years, most notably in Rabindranath Tagore's 1892 short story named 'Kabuliwala' where a Pathan merchant develops a deep bond with a five-year-old girl named Mini. It is not surprising that the positive portrayal of Kabuliwalas in the local culture has helped the community feel very much at home in Kolkata. And it is no different for 28-year-old Nidim Khan, an Afghan who was born in Kabul and moved to Kolkata with his father about a decade back. Nidim, like several others of his community, lives in north of Kolkata and their building is famously known as ‘Khan Kothi’, a neat and tidy house with minimal furniture and adorned by a beautiful carpet brought from Aghanistan. For the last few years, Nidim has been assisting his father Afroz in his money lending business. But following the Indian government's decision to scrap the old banknotes, they like other money lenders have been trapped in a situation where they cannot recover the money they had given as loan to people. “People who had borrowed from us are repaying in old currency notes, which we cannot accept. Further, people do not have enough Rs 100 notes or the new Rs 2,000 notes for them to repay the loans immediately,” says Nidim, adding, “We do not have new currency notes to give away as loans.” To further add to their misery, Nidim's family like most Kabuliwalas here do not hold bank accounts. That means they cannot go to the nearest bank and exchange the redundant banknotes. “The currency notes in our possession are of no use to us as we cannot exchange them. We do not deal in bonds and agreements. It is just a promise and trust on which our business thrives,” says Nidim’s father Afroz, adding that the government's demonetisation plan has further dented the-already struggling money lending business -- a sentiment that was unaniously agreed by most Kabuliwallas in town. (WION)

Kabuliwalas of Kolkata stricken by demonetisation

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New Rs 2000 notes recovered from bodies of terrorists killed in Kashmir

Kabuliwalas of Kolkata stricken by demonetisation