A special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has framed charges against a Hurriyat leader and seven others in the case of selling seats of professional courses in Pakistani colleges to locals for money, which was then allegedly used for unlawful and terrorist activities.
A special judge, designated under the NIA Act, Manjeet Singh Manhas has framed charges against accused Mohammad Akbar Bhat alias Zaffar Akbar Bhat, a Hurriyat leader who is the chairman of the Salvation Movement, and seven others for committing offences under Sections 13, 17, 18, 40 of the UAPA and under Section 420 of the IPC in a case filed by the Counter Insurgency Kashmir (CIK) and State Investigation Agency (SIA) in Srinagar on July 27, 2020.
Aid to terrorists, stone pelters
The investigating agencies said cogent evidence surfaced during the investigation that the money so received was passed on to terrorist(s), stone pelters and overground workers for unlawful and terrorist activities. During the course of investigation, the agencies said they seized and analyzed the documents and other material and found that deposits in the account(s) of accused persons were made for providing admissions in various technical and professional courses, including MBBS, in Pakistan.
“On the basis of other evidence collected, it surfaced that the admissions in MBBS and other professional courses in Pakistan were preferentially given to those students, who were close family members or relatives of killed terrorists on the recommendations of members of Hurriyat and received by their counterparts in Pakistan,” the investigation agencies said.
‘To keep pot of terror bioling’
It was on the recommendations of Hurriyat that authorities in Pakistan provided admission in professional colleges in Pakistan to the next of kin of killed terrorists “as a compensation to boost morale and keep the pot of terror boiling in the Valley and infuse new spirit into the terror fold”.
They said the accused persons through different Valley-based consultancies, without their knowledge used to motivate the gullible parents of students aspiring for professional courses, especially for MBBS, to apply for such courses in Pakistan with the assurance of cost-effectiveness in comparison with other South Asian or Middle Eastern countries offering such courses.
“On the motivation of accused persons, the parents or students often used to get trapped. The accused persons in conspiracy with Hurriyat leaders based in Pakistan and Kashmir were demanding huge amounts of money from parents for getting their children admitted in different technical courses, especially for MBBS, in Pakistan,” they said.
Moreover, they also would arrange recommendation letters from Hurriyat leaders and other valid travel documents from the Pakistan Embassy, New Delhi, to facilitate their visit to Pakistan for admission. All the arrangements of parents or students in Pakistan were usually done by the accused persons in Pakistan. The students were made to appear in the National Talent Search (NTS) test at the Hurriyat office in Pakistan “as a dupe tactic to make them believe that they were writing a pre-qualifying test, which would lead to their admission in professional colleges in Pakistan,” they added.
“Such tests were mostly facilitated by the persons or relatives of the accused persons, who had exfiltrated to Pakistan in the 1990’s to get illegal arms training and are settled in Pakistan or Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), who are utilizing their Kashmir-based contacts to further aid and abet terrorism in J&K,” they said.
For anti-national, subversive activities
During the investigation, it came to the fore that the accumulated money was ploughed into militancy and to create law and order problems by disturbing peace, damaging public property, striking terror among the common masses and creating potential threat to the sovereignty of India. Money raised through this process was also distributed among the families of killed terrorists as a token of incentive for families of active militants to boost their morale and carry forward anti-national, subversive, radical activities against the Union of India, they said.
In April this year, the National Medical Commission (NMC), University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in separate orders said the degrees obtained from Pakistani colleges will not be considered valid for higher studies in India or for applying in government jobs.
