New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Wednesday banned the Muslim League Jammu Kashmir run by Masarat Alam Bhat (MLK-MA), who was known as the “kingpin” of the stone-throwing protests against security forces in Kashmir in 2010.
He went on to become the head of the Syed Ali Shah Geelani faction of the separatist Hurriyat Conference after the death of the leader in 2021.
Security officials have always maintained that Alam played a crucial role in financing the stone-throwing and other activities to resist the Indian security apparatus in Kashmir.
Alam is currently in Delhi’s Tihar Jail in a terror-financing case filed by the National Investigation Agency in 2017.
In the gazette notification Wednesday, the Union home ministry said the MLK-MA has supported terrorist activities in the country with an intent to compromise security and public order, and was hence being banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
The ministry also said Bhat was involved in unlawful activities detrimental to the “integrity, sovereignty, security and communal harmony of the country”.
In a post on X, Union home minister Amit Shah said this organisation and its members were involved in “anti-national and secessionist activities” in Jammu and Kashmir, adding that they had incited people “to establish Islamic rule in J&K”.
The ‘Muslim League Jammu Kashmir (Masarat Alam faction)’/MLJK-MA is declared as an 'Unlawful Association' under UAPA.
This organization and its members are involved in anti-national and secessionist activities in J&K supporting terrorist activities and inciting people to…
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) December 27, 2023
ThePrint takes a look at the life and times of Alam and his group, which the Centre has characterised as having “anti-India and pro-Pakistan” activities and objectives,
Long history of militancy
Born in 1971, Alam went to Tyndale Biscoe School, which has a reputation of being one of the posh institutions in the Valley. He graduated in science but joined the Hizbul militant outfit in 1990.
He first shot to prominence with “go India, go back” and “ragda ragda” slogans during agitations in 2008 to protest the then state government’s decision to allot approximately 100 acres of forest land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB).
Security agencies also zeroed in on Alam as the person allegedly responsible for the spate of protests in the Valley in 2010 that culminated in many episodes of stone throwing against security forces in the months and years that followed. Reportedly, Alam had released a “protest calendar” following the death of a youth from a teargas shell.
The series of protests in 2010 led to the death of more than 100 civilians in Kashmir.
The same year, the central government announced a reward for his capture and Alam was arrested in October under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978. This act allowed the detention of a person for two years without an appearance in court.
He was in custody until 2015 when the coalition government of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the BJP, led by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, passed an order to the Jammu and Kashmir Police that Alam’s detention under PSA was not approved by the home department. This paved the way for his release from jail.
Alam’s release created ripples in both Kashmir and in New Delhi, with the BJP upping the ante against the PDP, its then coalition partner.
A month after his release, Alam mobilised a massive crowd to welcome Geelani, the then chief of Hurriyat Conference, and his supporters reportedly waved the Pakistani flag and raised pro-Pakistan slogans before the office of the Director General of Police, deepening the crisis in the government.
Barely a week later, he was picked up once again by the state police under PSA for “sedition” and “waging war against the state”. This was met by large-scale protests in Kashmir, prompting the police to shift him out to a jail in Jammu.
The then home minister Rajnath Singh had said that the government was not willing to compromise on the unity and integrity of India and Alam had to go to jail because sedition could not be “forgiven”.
“Yes, he (Masrat Alam) will go to jail. Wait and watch what happens. I want to assure the country that the government will not compromise on its unity and integrity. Sedition will not be forgiven,” Singh said in April 2015.
The Jammu and Kashmir government had reportedly booked Alam 37 times under the PSA.
In 2017, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case of terror funding and Alam was shifted out of Jammu to Delhi’s Tihar Jail two years later. He continues to be in Tihar.
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