J&K SPENT ₹10 CR ON SECURITY OF SEPARATISTS

Udhampur legislator had sought the details from the state govt

JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir government has spent a whopping over ₹10 crores on the security of separatists in the past 10 years. This was revealed by the state government in response to a cut motion moved by independent legislator from Udhampur constituency, Pawan Gupta. ››

JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir government has spent a whopping amount of over ₹10 crores on the security of separatists in the past 10 years.

This was revealed by the state government in response to a cut motion moved by independent legislator from Udhampur constituency, Pawan Gupta, who had sought year wise and person wise details of security-related expenditure incurred on providing guard/security/ transport to separatists and Hurriyat leaders during last 10 years.

In a written reply, chief minister Mehbooba Mufti divulged that the state government incurred an expenditure of ₹10.88 crore for providing security cover to separatist leaders. The total expenditure including transportation fuel to them was calculated at ₹10,88,75,777.

From 2008 to 2017, the state government spent ₹10,36,65,824 on salary component of personal security officers (PSOs) and ₹49,70,805 on fuel for vehicles escorting 14 separatist leaders.

The document also revealed that ₹4,44,558 are being given as monthly salary to the PSOs pro- vided to senior Hurriyat leader Aga Syed Hassan Mosavi.

Similarly, six security guards have been provided to Abdul Gani Bhat, for whom the government has to spent ₹4,32,000 every year.

The Hurriyat leaders who had been provided the security cover, includes Aga Syed Hassan Mosavi, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Abdul Gani Bhat, Abass Ansari, Bilal Gani Lone, Saleem Geelani, Zaffar Akbar Bhat, Shahid-ul-Islam, Abdul Gani Shah, Syed Abul Hussain, Farooq Ahmad Kichloo, Masroor Abbas Ansari, Fazal Haq Qureshi, and Yasin Malik.

Intriguingly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that swept last general elections on national security, terrorism, Kashmir and Pakistan, and which formed coalition government with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in March 2015, has maintained a discreet silence over the entire issue.

Notably, after the BJP government stormed to power in last general elections, the year-wise amount spent on the security and transportation fuel of Umar Farooq includes ₹34,49,058 in 2015, ₹36,18,247 in 2016 and ₹37,93,254 in 2017.