A Delhi court has ordered framing of charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Mohammad Yasin Malik and others in a case related to alleged terrorism and secessionist activities that disturbed the Valley in 2017.

The court ordered framing of charges against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, Kashmiri separatist leaders, including Yasin Malik, Shabbir Shah, Masarat Alam and others, under various sections of the stringent UAPA and Indian Penal Code (IPC), including criminal conspiracy, waging war against the country, and unlawful activities and terrorism, in a case pertaining to secessionist activities that disturbed Jammu and Kashmir.

The court also charged Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Md Yusuf Shah, Aftab Ahmad Shah, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Khan, Farooq Ahmad Dar, Md Akbar Khanday, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Bashir Ahmad Bhat, Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Masarat Alam, Abdul Rashid Sheikh and Naval Kishore Kapoor.

Special Judge Praveen Singh, after discussion of evidence, said prima facie, it is established that Shabir Shah, Yasin Malik, Rashid Engineer, Altaf Fantoosh, Masrat and Hurriyat/Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) were the direct recipients of terror funds.

“So far from the statements of witnesses, a pattern is emerging – Pakistan or its agencies and accused share a common goal and there is an agreement on the means to be used for achieving that goal and the terror funding is also being provided from Pakistan,” he said.

The court said, in the conspiracy, “The baton was held by conductors sitting across the border in the form of Pakistani agencies such as ISI and each of the conspirators, knowing every other conspirator, was playing his own role as per the directions of the conductor in order to create a symphony of bloodshed, violence, mayhem and destruction with the ultimate object of secession of J&K.”

It said the money for terror funding was sent from and by Pakistan and its agencies and even the diplomatic mission was used to fulfil the evil design. Money for terror funding was also sent by proclaimed international terrorists and accused Hafiz Saeed, it said.

It said a criminal conspiracy was hatched with a final object of secession of J&K from the Union of India and within that conspiracy, a conspiracy was hatched to commit certain acts to achieve the object of the original conspiracy and those acts, as discussed above, have been found to be terrorist acts.

After reading a joint press statement issued by Syed Ali Geelani and Mohammad Yasin Malik and others, the court noted that terrorist organisations and JRL/All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) not only share a common goal but from their own official words, it is apparent that they work in unison towards that goal.

The court also noted that prima facie there existed a criminal conspiracy pursuant to which large-scale protests, resulting in violence and arson at a massive scale, were orchestrated.

The court said Malik had set up an elaborate structure and mechanism across the world to raise funds for carrying out terrorist and other unlawful activities in Jammu and Kashmir in the name of “freedom struggle”.

It said accused Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali was one of the main conduits for the flow of this terror funding and accused Naval Kishore Kapoor had played an active part in facilitating it.

After going through a video, the court said that Rashid Engineer has been trying to incite disaffection towards India and its armed forces.

He is seen issuing subtle but ominous messages to the police personnel of Jammu and Kashmir asking them not to obey the orders of their officers as accepting those orders would amount to committing atrocities on their own brothers, the court said.

According to the NIA, various terrorist organisations such as the LeT, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), JKLF, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) among others with the support of the ISI of Pakistan, perpetrated violence in the Valley by attacking civilians and security forces.

It was further alleged that in 1993, the APHC was formed to give a political front to secessionist activities.

The NIA chargesheet submitted before the court said the central government received credible information that Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Amir of Jammat-ud-Dawah and the secessionist and separatist leaders, including members of the Hurriyat Conference, have been acting in connivance with active militants of proscribed terrorist organisations like HM and LeT for raising, receiving and collecting funds domestically and abroad through various illegal channels including hawala.

The NIA also alleged that this was done for funding separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and as such, they have entered into a larger conspiracy for causing disruption in the Valley by way of pelting stones on security forces, systematically burning of schools, damage to public property and waging war against India.