Things aren’t going well for retired bureaucrat Shah Faesal. Hardly had he announced his political ambitions by launching Jammu & Kashmir People’s Movement, when Jammu & Kashmir administration, in a recent decision, announced that his security cover shall be withdrawn, along with other separatist leaders.
A security review meeting was taken by the administration, under the chairmanship of State Chief Secretary, BVR Subrahmanyam, who gave his go-ahead to the decision. According to an official spokesperson, the decision was taken as took the decision as it was felt that providing security to these separatist leaders is ”wastage” of scarce state resources which could be better utilized elsewhere.
Interestingly, Shah Faesal is not the only one who has been hit hard with this decision. Separatist leaders like Engineer Rasheed, Aga Syed Mosvi, Saleem Geelani, Zaffar Akbar Bhat, Wahid Parra etc. have also had their security covers withdrawn. Wahid Parra is also the president of the youth wing of the Mehbooba Mufti-led ‘People’s Democratic Party’.
Moreover, this is not the first instance where the security cover of the separatist elements has been withdrawn. Following the dastardly Pulwama attacks, the Central Government launched a massive crackdown, as a consequence of which the security covers of separatists like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik etc. had been withdrawn. To their further agony, the government decided to reopen cases against Yasin Malik, apart from hitting hard on the terror funding agencies, including the notorious NGO Jamaat e Islaami.
For those unaware, Shah Faesal is a doctor by profession who had topped the civil services exams in 2010. He was elected as an IAS officer in his home cadre of Jammu & Kashmir. However, he was more in news for his controversial statements rather than efficient administration, be it supporting the terror elements in Kashmir Valley, or labeling entire India as ‘Rapistan’ for a dubious Kathua case, where the truth is yet to come out.
Having resigned on flimsy excuses, Shah Faesal has now entered into mainstream politics, along with separatist JNU student, Shehla Rashid Shora, with his Jammu & Kashmir People’s Movement. However, this time, it was the administration that had the last laugh. Tough luck, Shah Faesal.
