- Geelani stopped taking pension in 2005: Grandson
- I twice wrote to SSP to withdraw security: Prof Bhat
- We never asked for security, Govt can take it back: Bilal
Government of India’s plan of cracking a whip on the separatist leadership by scaling down their security, stopping their foreign travel and cutting their budgets is based on “propagandistic material” and figures that do not add up.
The assertions that Rs 560 crore were spent on the separatist leaders during the past five years seem to be “made up” considering that only eight separatist leaders have security cover and just two have passports while the government does not even a penny of their expenses.
Additional Director General of Police (Security), Dilbagh Singh said he did not have details about the expenses his department incurs on separatists and that only the Director General of Police (DGP) was authorized to talk over the issue.
However, a top Police officer, who is not authorized to talk to the media, said State police provides security to only eight separatist leaders including Huriyat Conference (M) Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Moulana Abbas Ansari, Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Gani Lone, Aga Syed Hassan, Fazal Haq Qureshi, Shahid-ul-Islam and Salim Geelani.
Among them Mirwaiz, Ansari, Bhat, Lone and Hassan have Z security while Qureshi, Shahid and Salim have Y security, he said.
The top police officer said besides these eight, the government also provides security to Democratic Liberation Party (DLP) Chairman, Hashim Qureshi who is seen in the State as someone batting for India not espousing the “cause of Kashmiris”.
The reports that GoI is planning to cut the separatist to size by downsizing their security, stopping their travel abroad trips and cutting on their funding came out after the failure of Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh-led All Party delegation to Kashmir failed to bear fruit with the separatist leadership slamming the door on them.
In the last session of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly held in Srinagar, an MLC Ajat Shatru had claimed that Rs 560 crore had been spent on separatists during past five years.
The Mirwaiz was provided security after unidentified gunmen assassinated his father Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq on 21 May 1990.
Similarly, Bilal was provided security cover after his father Abdul Gani Lone was assassinated on 21 May 2002 while Bhat was provided security after his brother’s killing.
Qureshi got the security cover after he was shot at in 2009 and Shahid was given security after two attacks on his life at Dalgate and Raj Bagh.
Though Hurriyat Conference (G) Chairman, Syed Ali Geelani was issued a passport last year to enable him to visit his ailing daughter in Saudi Arabia, he ultimately did not travel until the validity of his passport, issued for a brief period, ended.
Geelani’s grandson, Anees Shah said the octogenarian leader neither had any security cover nor a passport.
He also said that GoI never provided any expenses incurred on the travel or accommodation of the veteran Hurriyat leader.
“New Delhi is coming up with such statement just to malign Kashmir’s resistance movement,” Shah said.
Contrary to reports of receiving funding from GoI, from August 2005, Geelani even stopped taking pension despite being a three-time legislator.
Mirwaiz too has not undertaken any foreign travel in the recent past as he does not have a valid passport for the past three-and-a-half years now.
Geelani and Mirwaiz were not even able to attend the annual meeting of the foreign ministers of member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) after the OIC Secretary General invited them to it besides the meeting of Kashmir contact group held at New York from September 27 to October 1, 2015 on the sidelines of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly.
Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik too does not have a passport after it was impounded at New Delhi Airport when he returned from Pakistan in 2013.
Malik is married to a Pakistani artist, Mushaal and cannot travel abroad as he does not have a passport and when Mushaal visits Pakistan with daughter Raziyah Sultana, Malik has to bear the longing of seeing the family.
Senior Hurriyat leader and Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) President, Shabir Ahmad Shah also does not either have any security cover or a passport.
“Once few policemen came to us and told us that they would be performing the duties of security guards for Shah sahab but we threw them away,” a DFP spokesman said.
Not only Shah, even passports are not issued to Shah’s family and his wife, Dr. Bilquees could not undertake an official visit to Saudi Arabia after her passport too was impounded.
Another senior Hurriyat leader and National Front (NF) Chairman, Nayeem Khan also does not either have security cover or the travel documents.
Regional Passport Officer, Firdous Iqbal said he did not know which separatists had been issued passports.
However, officials at the Regional Passport Office in Srinagar, who did not wish to be named, said among the separatists only Bilal and Hassan have passports.
Constitutional and legal expert, Sheikh Showkat Hussain said as per the landmark Supreme Court verdict in the Maneka Gandhi versus the Union of India case of January 25, 1978, Right to Travel is part of the Right to Life envisaged in Article 21 of the Indian constitution that cannot be suspended even during wars and emergencies.
“So nobody’s passport can be suspended at anytime as Right to Travel is Right to Life,” he said.
Hussain said the government uses issuance of passports as a trump card to pacify dissent although it had became a basic document in most parts of the world.
About the accusations that GoI was emptying its coffers for paying expenses of the separatists, senior executive member of Hurriyat (M), Abdul Gani Bhat said if New Delhi proves he had even taken a penny from it, he would resign from both the Muslim Conference that he heads and Hurriyat (M) and leave politics for ever.
“I will even leave Kashmir if these allegations are proven correct,” he said.
Forget about getting paid, Bhat said when the government dismissed him from his services as a teacher in 1986 for raising voice while demanding Kashmir resolution even his gratuity amount had not been released.
The former Hurriyat Chairman said he had twice written to the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Srinagar to withdraw his security but the government ignored his pleas.
The separatist leadership is not even using any government accommodations for residential or office purposes.
“The government has not provided any accommodation to any separatist leader,” Director Estates, Ghulam Nabi Itoo said.
Meanwhile, a top police officer said so far GoI had not directed the Police department to withdraw any security from the separatists.
“These directions are taken after seeing the situation on the ground,” he said. “It’s our responsibility to take care of them even if they don’t seek our security.”
The police officer said J&K Police would not want any separatist get killed.
Senior executive member of Hurriyat (M) and Peoples Conference (PC) Chairman Bilal Gani Lone said security was provided to them due to their threat perception.
“If GoI wants to take it back, they are welcome,” he said. “We never asked it for.”
A number of other separatist leaders also share views of Lone about threat perception.
They said it was because of entering into parleys with New Delhi that Police felt the separatist leaders could be targeted and provided security cover to them was to ensure people do not react against it and the situation does not get out of their hands.
