Another Jamaat-like Crackdown in Kashmir? This Time, Govt Workers Are Also on List​

Srinagar: Days after the leadership of the largest socio-religious-political organisation, Jama’at-e-Islami (JeI), were arrested along with other religious and separatist leaders, a second government crackdown seems imminent in Jammu and Kashmir .

“A list of around two hundred militant and Jama’at sympathisers, which includes government officials, has been prepared," sources in state administration revealed, adding that the "militant sympathisers would be arrested soon".

Sources have said that government servants, including some senior officials, have been named in the list and will be removed from their positions.

“These are the people who are working covertly. They not only provide financial and logistical support to the militants, separatists and other anti-national elements but also propagate separatist thought among youth,” a top official, who wished to remain anonymous, said.

Police officials, including the director general of J&K Police, Dilbagh Singh, however, refused to comment about the purported list.

But, sources said that the government has been working on the list from some time now and the move is aimed at “cracking down on the support base of militants and separatists” so that “elections could be held peacefully”.

As per the official source, most of the government employees whose names have figured in the list are teachers.

“We have found a large number of government teachers actively doing subversive activities. They are also trying to propagate this at the place of their work, among colleagues and students,” the official said.

A report has even been compiled with the help of agencies, and local police in which several people have been indicted for spreading “separatist” ideology.

According to officials, the main propagators have been shortlisted.

“This is going to be the second phase of the crackdown on the anti-national elements in Kashmir valley,” the official said.

Apart from government employees, several religious leaders and clerics have also been implicated.

The Jama’at now faces a five-year ban in the state and the government has declared it an “unlawful association”. The group has been charged with being in “close touch” with militant outfits and supporting extremism and militancy in the state and elsewhere.

“JeI is involved in anti-national and subversive activities in the country intended to cause disaffection,” the ban order read.

The government has also said that the group intends to escalate its “subversive” activities, including an “attempt to carve out Islamic state out of the Union of India by destabilising” the law of the land.

The group was aiming to “escalate secessionist movement, support militancy and incite violence”, the government said.

The ban has been widely condemned in the state with two of Kashmir’s major political parties – the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party even holding protest demonstrations against it.

Just last week former Chief Minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti led a protest rally with members of her party in Anantnag district against the ban.

“We will protest at the district level and then in every (assembly) segment. We want the ban to be revoked and these elderly people are released.

Also, people should be told what their crime is, what is the charge that they face, what is the evidence on the basis of which they have been jailed,” she said.

An Islamic-political organisation and social conservative movement, Jama’at-e-Islami (JeI) was founded during British India in 1941 by Abul Ala Maududi, an Islamic theologian and socio-political philosopher.

Along with the Muslim Brotherhood, (Ikhwan al-Muslimin, founded in 1928 Egypt), JeI was the first of its kind to develop "an ideology based on the modern revolutionary conception of Islam.”

The JeI has participated in elections in Jammu and Kashmir from 1971 to 1987. Its seat share, however, remained in the single-digits with the organization even alleging that the polls had been rigged.

The group, which has created a considerable number of schools, orphanages and charitable trusts in the state, has been called out time and again for allegedly harbouring a close association with Kashmiri militants, a claim which they have denied.