One of the Hurriyat Conference’s factions’ offices have been sealed by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The action was taken after a court in New Delhi decided that allegations of anti-Indian activities against one of its inmates justified the government taking control of the person’s property.
A notice stating that the building, which is co-owned by the undertrial leader Nayeem Ahmad Khan, has been sealed on the orders of the Special NIA Court in New Delhi was posted by several agency officials outside the Hurriyat office in the Rajbagh neighborhood.
Since 2018, Khan and more than a half-dozen other senior leaders have been arrested and imprisoned in a case that accuses them of funding “terror activities” in India-administered Kashmir.
Altaf Ahmad Shah, one of them and the son-in-law of the late Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani, died of cancer last year while still in prison.
The media reports that the Delhi court had stated in its order that the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, under which Khan has been charged, does not prevent a court from ordering the seizure of property of any accused facing trial under this law, states the Delhi court.
Seizure doesn’t mean guilt – court
In addition, the court stated that the seizure does not imply that the court has reached a decision regarding the property during the trial.
The court noted that meetings had been held in the Hurriyat office to “strategize different protests, fund activities of stone-throwing on security forces, recruit unemployed youths to carry out illegal activities as well as (militant) activities to create unrest in the former state of Jammu and Kashmir to wage war against the Government of India.”
In the past, the Hurriyat Conference and a number of Indian governments have discussed the disputed Kashmir region.
The chief of the faction whose office was seized, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, is among the leaders of both factions who are currently detained in their homes or in prison.
Since August 2019, when the Indian government abolished the region’s autonomy and placed the entire Muslim-majority region under lockdown for months, Farooq has been in house detention.
Disputed region
India and Pakistan share some administration of Kashmir, but both countries claim it in its entirety. China also owns a small part of Kashmir.
The two nations have fought three wars since 1947, two of which were fought over Kashmir: 1948, 1965, and 1971.
In India-administered Kashmir, some Kashmiri groups have been fighting for independence or union with Pakistan or against Indian rule.
Since 1989, the conflict in the region has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, according to a number of human rights organizations.
