Center empowers J&K to ban use of spaces, funds by JKLF

Days after banning Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), the Center has empowered the J&K government to prohibit the use of spaces and funds by the outfit.

In a notification issued by Union Home Ministry, the state government has been authorized to take action against the organization under section 7 and 8 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967. The notification empowers the government to seize the offices and other properties of JKLF besides its bank accounts.

While section 7 of the law empowers the government to prohibit the use of funds by an unlawful association, section 8 defines the powers to ban the use of locations for holding activities of such an organization.

The JKLF chief Yasin Malik was arrested last month and subsequently booked under public safety act (PSA).

The Center banned the JKLF on March 22 for “supporting extremism and militancy” and indulging in “anti-national activity.” The Union home ministry banned the outfit for five years under the anti-terror law, on the grounds that it was in “close touch with militant outfits” and involved in “anti-national and subversive activities” intended to disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.

Earlier, in a similar order, the Center banned Jamaat-e-Islamia J&K, a politico-religious organisation. After banning Jama’at on February 28, the J&K police arrested its ameer (chief) Abdul Hamid Fayaz and have, according to the party, since arrested over 300 of its members.

After the February 14 suicide car-bomb attack on a CRPF convoy in southern Pulwama district in which more than 40 paramilitary personnel were killed, the government has continued to crack down on separatists and their sympathisers.

The bans and arrests of separatist leaders indicate that the Centre has decided to go after anti-India groups ahead of Lok Sabha polls which start on April 11.