The Jammu & Kashmir Government on Wednesday further diluted and withdrew the security of 18 other members of Hurriyat Conference, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Yasin Malik, Aga Syed Mosvi and Maulvi Abbas Ansari .
Earlier, four Hurriyat members, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, were stripped off their security cover by the State Government.
In addition, the security of 155 political persons and activists, who did not require the security provided to them based on their threat assessment and their activities, was also withdrawn.
This includes Shah Faesal, who resigned from the IAS and Wahid Parray.
According to the spokesperson of Home Department, "it was felt that providing security to these separatist leaders is a wastage of scarce state resources which could be better utilised elsewhere".
Among the leaders whose security has been downgraded and withdrawn are SAS Geelani, Aga Syed Mosvi, Maulvi Abbas Ansari, Yaseen Malik, Saleem Geelani, Shahid ul Islam, Zaffar Akbar Bhat, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza, Farooq Ahmed Kichloo, Masroor Abbas Ansari, Aga Syed Abul Hussain, Abdul Gani Shah and Mohd Musadiq Bhat.
Through this exercise, over 1,000 police personnel and over 100 vehicles are freed to do regular police work, the police spokesman said.