Intelligence had alerted J&K of anti-India rally; State still gave nod
Massarat Aalam
New Delhi: Hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Massarat Aalam had resumed his anti-India activities immediately after being release on March 7, and started mobilising overground workers of separatist groups like the Hurriyat and even subversive elements with a plan to launch major rallies and strikes across the Kashmir Valley.
The intelligence agencies have told the Centre that Aalam had prepared an elaborate blueprint to launch a civil disobedience movement such as in 2010 in the Valley with Pakistan’s support. The 2010 movement crippled normal day-to-day activities in the Valley for several days as large-scale incidents of stone-pelting, in which Aalam too participated, were reported from different parts of the Valley.
Central security and intelligence agencies were closely monitoring Aalam’s activities since his release from jail last month, and were keeping the Centre continually updated. The agencies clearly informed the Centre that Aalam was planning major anti-India rallies, that turned out to be correct.
The Centre, in turn, kept the Mufti Mohammed Sayeed government in Jammu and Kashmir informed that Aalam’s release could lead to a fresh spell of trouble in the days ahead, but the state authorities surprisingly still gave permission to Aalam and Syed Ali Shah Geelani to hold rallies in Srinagar. Both Geelani and Aalam not just raised anti-Indian slogans at these rallies, but also waived Pakistani flags and even praised India’s most wanted terrorist Hafiz Saeed. Intelligence sources said the state government was fully aware that trouble was brewing.
Intelligence sources said that the state government was well aware of the trouble brewing in the region as the Centre had kept them “well informed’’, but still the state government, “surprisingly” failed to take timely preventive action. In fact, Aalam’s arrest was also the result of some tough warning by Union home minster Rajnath Singh who called up Mr Sayeed saying any anti-India activity will not be tolerated.
Sources claim that initially Mr Sayeed was reluctant to arrest Aalam and wanted to place him only under house arrest like Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, but it was the home minister’s insistence on taking tough action against the separatists that led to Aalam’s arrest. Intelligence agencies also had confirmed reports that close associates of Aalam were in constant touch with subversive elements in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir since his release from jail, plotting anti-Indian activities.
“The possibility that close associates of Aalam and may be he himself having had a conversation with Hafiz Saeed also cannot be ruled out. We are investigating this matter,’’ a senior intelligence official said.
( Source : dc )
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