For the first time in three decades, income-tax authorities on Wednesday conducted raids on leading Kashmiri
businessmen, including an office-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party.

Raids were conducted on premises owned by FIL industries Ltd in Delhi, Srinagar and Jammu, sources said. Owned by S M Iqbal Bukhari, the company deals in food, beverages and pesticides. He also owns an apple juice plant. FIL MD and Bukharis son, M Altaf Bukhari, whos the PDP treasurer, said, A team headed by Jammubased I-T commissioner Varinder Singh raided our Srinagar office to crosscheck records to tally with the returns we have filed, Altaf said.

Altaf said although it was humiliating to face an unwarranted raid, the I-T team was well-behaved while pursuing records. PDP general-secretary Nimaz-uddin Bhat termed the raid as a political mischief. The Bukharis are upright businessmen of the state and a raid without prior notice sounds mischievous, Bhat said.