Both factions of Hurriyat Conference likely to be banned under UAPA, say officials

SRINAGAR: A ban under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act could be imposed on each factions of the secessionist conglomerate Hurriyat Conference which has been spearheading the separatist motion in Jammu and Kashmir for over twenty years, officials mentioned.

They mentioned a current probe into the granting of MBBS seats to Kashmiri college students by establishments in Pakistan signifies that the cash collected from aspirants by some organisations which had been half of the Hurriyat Conference conglomerate was getting used for funding terror organisations within the union territory.

The officials mentioned each the factions of the Hurriyat are likely to be banned under Section 3(1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or the UAPA, under which “if the Central Government is of opinion that any association is, or has become, an unlawful association, it may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare such association to be unlawful.”

They mentioned the proposal was mooted in accordance with the Centre’s coverage of zero-tolerance towards terrorism.

The Hurriyat Conference got here into existence in 1993 with 26 teams, together with some pro-Pakistan and banned outfits such because the Jamaat-e-Islami, JKLF and the Dukhtaran-e-Millat. It additionally included the People’s Conference and the Awami Action Committee headed by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq.

The separatist conglomerate broke into two factions in 2005 with the reasonable group being led by the Mirwaiz and the hard-line headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani. So far, the Centre has banned the Jamaat-e-Islami and the JKLF under the UAPA. The ban was imposed in 2019.

The officials mentioned a probe into funding of terror teams indicated alleged involvement of secessionist and separatist leaders, together with the members and cadres of the Hurriyat Conference who’ve been performing in connivance with energetic militants of proscribed terrorist organisations Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

The cadres raised funds within the nation and from overseas by way of numerous unlawful channels, together with hawala, for funding separatist and terrorist actions in Jammu and Kashmir, they mentioned.

The funds collected had been used for inflicting disruption within the Kashmir Valley by manner of pelting stones on safety forces, systematically burning colleges, damaging public property and waging battle towards India as half of a legal conspiracy, they claimed.

Supporting the case for banning the 2 factions of the Hurriyat Conference under the UAPA, the officials cited a number of instances associated to terror funding, together with the one being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) during which a number of of the conglomerate’s cadres had been arrested and jailed.

Many of the second-rung cadres of each the factions are in jail since 2017, they mentioned. Among these in jail are Altaf Ahmed Shah, the son-in-law of Geelani; businessman Zahoor Ahmed Watali; Geelani’s shut aide Ayaz Akbar, who can be the spokesperson of the hardline separatist organisation Tehreek-e-Hurriyat; Peer Saifullah; Shahid-ul-Islam, spokesperson of the reasonable Hurriyat Conference; Mehrajuddin Kalwal; Nayeem Khan; and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias ‘Bitta Karate’.

Later, JKLF chief Yaseen Malik, DeM head Asiya Andrabi and pro-Pakistan separatist Masarat Alam had been additionally named in a supplementary cost sheet in a case of terror financing.

Another case that’s likely to be cited for banning the 2 Hurriyat Conference factions is the one towards PDP youth chief Waheed-ur-Rahman Parra, who’s alleged to have paid Rs 5 crore to the son-in-law of Geelani for maintaining Kashmir in turmoil after the dying of Hizbul Mujahideen terror commander Burhan Wani in 2016, the officials mentioned.

The NIA has alleged that after the dying of Wani, who was killed in an encounter with the Army in July 2016, Parra bought in contact with Altaf Ahmad Shah, alias Altaf Fantoosh, and requested him to be sure that the Valley was saved on the boil with widespread unrest and stone pelting.

Also, the Counter Intelligence (Kashmir), a department of CID division of Jammu and Kashmir Police, registered a case in July final yr following data that a number of unscrupulous individuals, together with some Hurriyat leaders, had been hand in glove with some instructional consultancies and are promoting Pakistan-based MBBS seats and admission in different skilled programs in numerous schools and universities.

At least 4 individuals, together with Mohammad Akbar Bhat alias Zaffar Bhat, self-styled chairman of Salvation Movement which is an element of reasonable Hurriyat Conference, had been arrested on this case.

It is alleged that the constituents of the Hurriyat Conference had been “selling” MBBS seats in Pakistan to Kashmiri college students and utilizing the cash collected, at the very least partly, to assist and fund terrorism.

During the probe, it had surfaced that particular person Hurriyat leaders had their quota of seats which had been offered to folks needing to receive MBBS and different skilled levels in come what may, the officials mentioned.

The officials mentioned proof confirmed that the cash was “put into channels that ended up in supporting programmes and projects pertaining to terrorism and separatism like payment for organising stone pelting.”

Citing the investigation, the officials mentioned that the typical value of an MBBS seat in Pakistan was something between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 12 lakh. In some instances, the payment was introduced down on the intervention of Hurriyat leaders. 

Depending upon the political heft of the Hurriyat chief who intervened, concessions had been prolonged to aspiring college students, the officials mentioned. 

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