After exposing the murky deals of a section of Hurriyat leaders who were found selling Pakistan-based MBBS seats to fund terrorism in the Kashmir Valley, the Union Government is set to impose a permanent ban on both factions of the Hurriyat Conference under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The Hurriyat Conference was formed in 1993 with 26 groups, including some pro-Pakistan and banned outfits such as the Jamaat-e-Islami, the JKLF and the Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DeM) among others. The grouping also included the People’s Conference and the Awami Action Committee headed by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq.
The original separatist conglomerate broke into two factions in 2005. The moderate group was led by the Mirwaiz and the hard-line faction was headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Both factions are estimated to have linkages with Pakistan’s ISI-Army combine as also the political parties there, sources in the security agencies said.
The Centre had earlier banned the Jamaat-e-Islami and the JKLF under the UAPA.
Dropping clear hints of an imminent crackdown against both the factions of the Hurriyat, official sources said, “It is a matter of time.
The Government is expected to declare Hurriyat Conference to be unlawful.”
Official sources in the J&K Home Department claimed an ongoing probe into funding of terror groups has clearly established the alleged involvement of secessionist and separatist leaders, including the members and cadres of the Hurriyat Conference who have been acting in connivance with active militants of proscribed terrorist organisations Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), DeM and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
On the basis of material evidence collected so far, the Centre is most likely to crack its whip by issuing a notification in the Official Gazette, declaring such association to be unlawful. The Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Police have so far arrested four separatist leaders while it is looking for others in connection with the case. The FIR in the case was registered in July 2020.
Referring to the modus operandi, official sources said, the Hurriyat cadres raised funds in the country and from abroad through various illegal channels, including hawala, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in J&K. The funds collected were used for causing disruption in the Kashmir Valley by way of pelting stones on security forces, systematically burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India as part of a criminal conspiracy, they claimed.
A large number of second-rung separatist leaders are currently lodged in different jails in connection with the terror-funding cases. They include separatist leaders Altaf Ahmed Shah, the son-in-law of Geelani; businessman Zahoor Ahmed Watali; Geelani’s close aide Ayaz Akbar, who is also the spokesperson of the hard-line separatist organisation Tehreek-e-Hurriyat; Peer Saifullah; Shahid-ul-Islam, spokesperson of the moderate Hurriyat Conference; Mehrajuddin Kalwal; Nayeem Khan; and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias ‘Bitta Karate’.
Yasin Malik, chief of the JKLF, DeM head Asiya Andrabi and pro-Pakistan separatist Masarat Alam were also named in a supplementary charge sheet in a case of terror financing.
Another case which is likely to be cited for banning the two Hurriyat Conference factions is the one against PDP youth leader Waheed-ur-Rahman Parra, who is alleged to have paid Rs 5 crore to the son-in-law of Geelani for keeping Kashmir in turmoil after the death of Hizbul Mujahideen terror commander Burhan Wani in 2016, the officials said.
The NIA has alleged that after the death of Wani, who was killed in an encounter with the Army in July 2016, Parra got in touch with Altaf Ahmad Shah, alias Altaf Fantoosh, and asked him to ensure that the Valley was kept on the boil with widespread unrest and stone-pelting.
Also, the Counter Intelligence (Kashmir), a branch of the CID department of J&K Police, registered a case in July last year following information that several unscrupulous persons, including some Hurriyat leaders, were hand in glove with some educational consultancies and are selling Pakistan-based MBBS seats and securing admission in other professional courses in various colleges and universities there.
In this case, four persons, including Mohammad Akbar Bhat alias Zaffar Bhat, self-styled chairman of Salvation Movement which is part of moderate Hurriyat Conference, were arrested.
The constituents of Hurriyat Conference were allegedly “selling” MBBS seats in Pakistan to Kashmiri students and using a part of the funds for fuelling terrorism.