Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Sunday decided to withdraw the security cover of five separatist leaders, including Mirwaiz Umer Farooq.
“A decision has been taken to withdraw the security cover of five separatist leaders — Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, professor Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Lone, Hashim Qureshi and Shabir Ahmad Shah,” state government official said.
An official said, “no security cover will be provided under any pretext to these five leaders and other separatists.”
All security and any vehicles provided to the five separatists will stand withdrawn by today evening, the order read, adding that no security forces or cover should be provided, under any pretext, to them or any other separatists.
“If they have any other facilities provided by the government, they are to be withdrawn forthwith. The police headquarters will review if there are any other separatists who have government security or facilities and will withdraw these immediately,” the order read.
Sunday’s announcement comes after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who visited the Kashmir Valley on Friday, had said that security provided to those who receive money from Pakistan would be reviewed.
Shah is presently in custody in Delhi after he was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Srinagar on July 26, 2017, in connection with a terror funding case.
However, separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani and JKLF chief Yasin Malik were not provided any security cover by the state government.
Meanwhile, reacting to the Jammu and Kashmir government’s decision to withdraw security cover for five separatist leaders, the Hurriyat Conference said they had never sought security at the first place.
“The government decided on its own to provide security to separatist leaders which was never demanded in the first place,” the Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, one of the five leaders, said in a statement.