As many as 46 pieces of shahtoos shawls, and a scarf worth crores of rupees in the international market were seized, and one person was arrested. Each shawl would cost anything between Rs 80,000 to 300,000 in the international market. Deputy Commissioner of Police, special cell, Ashok Chand told reporters that the police, while verifying the movement of Kashmiri militants in Delhi, got information about the sale of shahtoos shawls by some Kashmiris. There were also unconfirmed reports that Kashmiri militants had set up commercial bases in Kathmandu to raise funds, through shahtoos and other wildlife trade.

Chand said a large portion of shahtoos from Tibet is smuggled to Kashmiri production houses in Srinagar via Nepal or even Pakistan.

Shahtoos is an undercoat or down wool of the endangered Tibetanantelope -- chiru. It is extracted by shearing or combing the hides of dead chirus. One animal yields about 125 to 150 gms of shahtoos. In the present case about 140 chirus could have been killed.