Govt bans JKLF, shows zero tolerance to terror

New Delhi: The Centre on Friday banned Yasin Malik-led Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) for its alleged role in promoting secessionist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and a series of violent acts, asserting its policy of “zero tolerance” against terrorism.

The front was banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act after a meeting on security was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba said the action was taken while following the “zero tolerance” policy of the Central government against terrorism.

“Murders of Kashmiri Pandits by the JKLF in 1989 triggered their exodus from the Valley. Malik was the mastermind behind the purging of Kashmiri Pandits and is responsible for their genocide,” said Mr Gauba. “The JKLF has many serious cases registered against it. This organisation is responsible for murder of four Indian Air Force personnel and kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of the then Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in the VP Singh government,” he said.

Malik is at present lodged in Kot Balwal jail in Jammu and is likely to face trial in the three-decade-old case of kidnapping of Rubaya Sayeed and the killing of IAF personnel.

A home ministry official said that the Centre has evidence to show that the JKLF is in close touch with militant outfits and is supporting militancy in J&K and elsewhere.

The outfit claims “secession of a part of the Indian territory from the Union” and supports terrorist and separatist groups fighting for this purpose, he said.

The ban on JKLF coincided with a coordinated crackdown by various Central investigative agencies on Friday to pave the way for confiscating 25 assets linked to LeT chief Hafiz Sayed, four to Shabir Shah, and other immovable facilities in the name of over a dozen people linked to militant outfits.

The JKLF was founded by Pakistani national Amanullah Khan in the mid-1970s at Birmingham in the United Kingdom and came into prominence in 1971 when its member hijacked an Indian Airlines plane flying from Srinagar to Jammu.

As many as 37 FIRs have been registered against the JKLF by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, Mr Gauba said.

The organisation was also involved in the kidnapping and killing of Ravindra Mhatre, an Indian diplomat posted the UK, in 1984. A week later, India executed Maqbool Bhat, a JKLF activist, who had been sentenced to death.

The JKLF is the second organisation in Jammu and Kashmir which has been banned this month. Earlier, the Centre had banned the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI).

Earlier, the government withdrew security of several separatist leaders in the state following the Pulwama terror attack on February 14 in which over 40 CRPF personnel were killed.