Srinagar: Jailed separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah’s daughter, Sama Shabir, and the deceased senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s granddaughter, Ruwa Shah, have publicly disassociated themselves from any connection with the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) and Hurriyat, pledging allegiance to the sovereignty of the Union of India.
In identical public notices published in local newspapers, they distanced themselves from separatist politics.
Ruwa Shah, the daughter of Geelani’s son-in-law, Altaf Ahmad Shah issued a public notice distancing herself from the Hurriyat Conference faction founded by her late grandfather.
She declared that she had no inclination or sympathy towards the Hurriyat Conference ideology.
“I am a loyal citizen of India, not affiliated with any organisation or association that has an agenda against the Union of India, and I owe allegiance to the constitution of my country,” Shah, she said in a local daily earlier this week.
Her father, who was also in jail for alleged terror funding, died last year after a prolonged illness.
In a separate public notice published in a local newspaper on Thursday, 23-year-old Sama Shabir, a former CBSE topper in Kashmir stated her status as a loyal Indian citizen and unequivocally distanced herself from the banned organisation founded by her father, who is currently in Tihar Jail on money laundering and terror funding charges.
“I am a loyal citizen of India and I am not affiliated with any person or organisation which is against the sovereignty of the Union of India,” Sama Shabir, the elder daughter of Shah, said in the notice.
“I am not associated with the DFP or its ideology in any way,” she said, cautioning that legal action would be pursued against anyone linking her to the separatism group without authorisation.
Shabir Ahmad Shah, 70, was arrested in 2017 by the Enforcement Directorate over alleged money laundering activities linked to terror financing. He was later chargesheeted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Sama was summoned by the ED in 2019 in connection with the case, but she did not appear at that time as she was in the United Kingdom studying law.
It is pertinent to mention that that government of India led by PM Narendra Modi banned more than nine separatist groups in J&K after the abrogation of article 370 of the Indian Constitution.
On February 18, 2019, the Union Home Ministry banned Jamaat-e-Islami, a cadre-based organisation with a pan-Kashmir presence. The MHA stated that the outfit was involved in activities aimed at disrupting India’s integrity.
Nearly a month later, on March 22, 2019, the MHA declared the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) as an unlawful association for “supporting extremism and militancy” and indulging in “anti-India activity”.
On October 5, 2023, the Union Home Ministry banned jailed separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah’s Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP) for its “anti-India” and “pro-Pakistan” activities.
Two months later, on December 28, 2023, the Union Home Ministry banned the Masarat Alam-led Muslim League, a separatist organisation, for “anti-national and secessionist” activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
On December 31, 2023, the MHA banned Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH), which was earlier headed by deceased separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
On February 28, 2024, the MHA first banned the Muslim Conference Jammu Kashmir (Sumji faction) and Muslim Conference Jammu and Kashmir (Bhat faction) over alleged terror charges. They were respectively part of Hurriyat(G) and Hurriyat(M) before August 5, 2019.
On March 12, 2023, the government banned the Jammu and Kashmir National Front over charges of “indulging in unlawful activities, which are prejudicial to the integrity, sovereignty, and security of the country.
On March 16, 2024, the Government of India banned four factions of the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League (JKPL) and the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Freedom League (JKPFL).
The MHA declared factions of the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League (JKPL), namely, JKPL (Mukhtar Ahmed Waza), JKPL (Bashir Ahmad Tota), JKPL (Ghulam Mohammad Khan @Sopori) also known as Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Political League and JKPL (Aziz Sheikh) led by Yaqoob Sheikh, as unlawful associations under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act-1967.
On the same day, the Modi govt banned the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Freedom League headed by Farooq Rehmani.
