Working on the Centre’s directive to choke terror funding, the Jammu and Kashmir’s State Investigation Agency (SIA) has unearthed assets worth ₹122 crore of banned Jamat-e-Islami (JeI) spread across twelve locations in the Union Territory.
On Saturday, properties spread in three districts were seized post notification by respective district magistrates of Pulwama, Kulgam and Srinagar, said the UT administration.
During the seizure proceedings, the district authorities found that about a dozen business establishments in Kulgam, including the shopping complex at Magam, are currently running from these JeI properties on a rent basis. After due diligence, it was decided that these would be allowed to continue so that private persons who may not have any connections with JeI and are only tenants paying rent to JeI, are not penalised and their livelihoods not impaired, said the UT administration in a statement.
The initiative has been taken to choke the availability of funds for secessionist activities and to dismantle the ecosystem of anti-national elements and terror networks hostile to India’s sovereignty. The properties belonging to JeI in four districts of J&K have been notified by concerned district magistrates in the exercise of the powers conferred by section 8 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, the administration said. “Red entry” has also been made in the revenue records after attaching them.
There are five properties seized in Kulgam, nine in Pulwama and three in Srinagar. A two-storey residential house at Barzulla South, Srinagar, in the joint ownership of former Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Firdous Ahmad Asmi was also seized by the district officials.
Searches were carried out at the house of Geelani and Asmi. The ground floor having 4 rooms with kitchen and 2 bedrooms were being used as a residence, according to the rent deed, by a person identified as Shahzada Aurangzeb, a son of Hakeem Ghulam Nabi, belonging to Moolu Chitragam of Shopian. He has been staying there since November 2018. Shahzada Aurangzeb, the SIA said, is a permanent member (Rukn) of JeI and has also served as “Amir-e-Zila” of Shopian.
Aurangzeb is working as Academic Officer at Srinagar-based Jamait-u-Banaat, a women’s college affiliated with JKBOSE and the University of Kashmir, since 2020. Earlier he had served as Principal at Siraj-ul-Uloom Shopian.
A notarised rent deed was executed in September 2020 for a period of five years. The monthly rent was fixed at ₹1,000 but no rent has been paid till date.