SRINAGAR: In a case related to the sale of MBBS seats to Kashmiris in
Pakistan and using the money to support and fund terrorism, the Jammu
and Kashmir Police has moved the Home Department seeking sanction to
prosecute nine people, including a Hurriyat constituent leader and a
lawyer from South Kashmir, officials said on Sunday.
The Counter Intelligence Kashmir (CIK), a wing of the police's CID,
had registered the case in July last year after receiving information
through credible sources that several unscrupulous persons, including
some Hurriyat leaders, were associated with some educational advisors.
There were “sales” of Pakistan-based MBBS seats and seats in other
professional courses at many colleges and universities.
At least four people were arrested by the CIK in August and it also
named two of their accomplices who are currently in Pakistan and its
occupied Kashmir areas.
The CIK, after a thorough investigation, transferred the Jammu and
Kashmir Home Department and sought sanction to prosecute the nine
people under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act
(UAPA), mandated as per the Act.
According to officials, further evidence has come to the fore during
the investigation which also found that the money collected from the
entry was given to some terror groups as well as separatist groups to
promote enmity and wage war against the country. .
Significantly, this case may come in handy in implementing the
provisions of banning the hardline Hurriyat Conference as the head of
one of its constituent Salvation Front, Mohammad Akbar Bhat alias
Zafar Bhat. The demand has been made under the stringent UAPA.
Examination of some witnesses has indicated that several families
approached Hurriyat leaders to take advantage of a “program”, the
brainchild of Pakistan's external spy agency ISI, which aims to
provide free MBBS and engineering to the families of slain terrorists.
was to encourage terrorism by giving compensation. seats, officials
said.
However, there have been instances where such families were
disappointed as monetary consideration was preferred over the intended
purpose of the “programme” run by the ISI, he said.
Officials said the seats were priced between Rs 10 and 12 lakh and
that “in some cases, the price was reduced based on the ‘shararis'
(recommendations) of senior Hurriyat leaders and the political height
of these separatist leaders who intervened. done, concessions were
given to the aspiring student and his/her family”.
CIK officials lashed out in August and arrested Bhat and three others
for “selling” MBBS seats to Kashmiri students in Pakistan and using
the money to support and fund terrorism. During investigation, it
emerged that in many cases seats related to MBBS and other
professional degrees were given to students who were close to the
family members or relatives of the slain terrorists.
There were also cases where the quota allotted to individual Hurriyat
leaders was sold to worried parents who wanted their children to get
MBBS and other professional degrees in some way or the other. For the
academic years between 2014-18, more than 80 case studies were
conducted that examined either students or their parents.
Searches were conducted at about a dozen premises in the Kashmir
Valley. Officials said Bhat's brother Altaf Ahmed Bhat and another
arrested man's brother Manzoor Ahmad Shah were coordinating from
across the border and facilitating the entry.
Both, who are accused in the case, had migrated to Pakistan for arms
and ammunition training in the early 1990s and settled on the other
side. He played a key role on the ISI's behalf in facilitating cases
related to entry under this category for this group of Hurriyat
affiliates in India, as part of a nefarious design to fund terrorism
and other terrorist related activities. was in the form.
