J&K police arrests ten for conspiring to revive Hurriyat and banned JKLF

The Jammu and Kashmir police formally arrested ten persons for their involvement in an alleged conspiracy of reviving Hurriyat and banned Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front in Kashmir.

The police made the arrests in a case registered at Kothibagh police station in Srinagar under sections 10, 13 of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and section 121A of IPC.

The police claim that the arrested persons and others were allegedly planning to revive these organisations on the directions of Pakistan based handlers. "This meeting was an overt attempt to start working for revival of these moribund organisations," read the official police statement.


Earlier on Sunday night police had informed that a search was conducted on basis of credible info about meeting of some former militants of JKLF and erstwhile separatists in a hotel in Srinagar and they were brought to police station for verification.

The police maintained that initial investigation has also revealed that they were in touch with entities based abroad, few of them were members of many groups that propagate secessionism like Kashmir Global Council headed by Farooq Siddiqui and Raja Muzaffer of JKLF.

"Under the garb of manufactured pretext, this meeting which took place, the real agenda of the meeting was discussing strategy of revival. Initial investigation has also revealed that a similar preliminary meeting took place on 13th June 2023, which was attended by most of them," read the official statement of the police.

However, the Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in a statement here clarified that those who attended this lunch at the hotel were there in individual capacity and not as members of Hurriyat. "It was not any Hurriyat event nor was Hurriyat leadership aware of it. In fact it is through media that Hurriyat became came to know about it. So to attribute motives to Hurriyat in this regard is mere speculation and totally baseless," read the official statement of Hurriyat.

The JKLF was banned in 2019 and the two conglomerates of Hurriyat led by Mirwaiz--under house arrest since August 2019--and Masarat Alam--in Tihar jail since 2015--issue occasional statements with no political activity on ground since August 5 2019, when special status of J&K was abrogated and the state was downgraded into the two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh. Most of the prominent separatists leaders and activists are also lodged in different jail across India.

The police informed that the arrested persons in the fresh case have been identified as Mohammad Yaseen Bhat, Mohammad Rafiq Pahloo, Shams u din Rehmani, Jahangeer Ahmad Bhat, Khurshid Ahmad Bhat, Shabir Ahmad Dar, Sajad Hussain Gul, Firdous Ahmad Shah, Parray Hassan Firdous and Sohail Ahmad Mir.

"Investigation in the case is in full swing and some more arrests are likely to take place," read the police statement.