J&K govt withdraws security cover of separatist leaders
PULWAMA ATTACK Security of other leaders being reviewed too, Pakistan says JEM already a ‘proscribed entity’
SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Sunday withdrew the security of four separatist leaders of the state, including Hurriyat Conference chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, three days after the Pulwama suicide attack in which at least 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans were killed, even as Pakistan said that Jaish-e-mohammad, which claimed responsibility for the terror attack, was banned in 2002 and Islamabad was fulfilling its obligations on sanctions as per the law.
Apart from Mirwaiz, the state administration removed the security cover and other facilities, including vehicles, provided to Abdul Ghani Bhat, Bilal Lone and Shabir Shah. The decision came after Union home minister Rajnath Singh, while reviewing security arrangements in Srinagar, said that security provided to people who receive money from Pakistan and its intelligence service, the ISI, will be reviewed.
“No security forces or cover should be provided, under any pretext, to them or any other separatists. If they have any other facilities provided by government, they are to be withdrawn forthwith,” the government spokesperson said.
Mirwaiz, Bhat and Lone are part of the moderate faction, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC). The trio, as well as two other leaders, was part of the group that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), then under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, held talks with in 2004.
Shabir Shah, who is in Tihar Jail since his arrest in July 2017 in connection with a 2007 money laundering case, allegedly linked to terror financing, heads the Democratic Freedom Party and is part of hardline Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Geelani. Shah has spent a major por-