Hypocrisy has no bounds when it comes to the separatists of Jammu and Kashmir. Unfortunately for them, their façade of “sacrifice” and “martyrdom” has worn out with information on their wards’ whereabouts being publicly available. It has been discovered that the at least 220 wards of 112 separatists and political sympathisers are settled abroad, enjoying comfortable and affluent lives.
Home Minister Amit Shah, while seeking extension of President’s Rule in J&K offered to give the details of various Hurriyat leaders in Kashmir whose children were studying abroad. He said that children of as many as 130 Hurriyat separatists are either currently studying abroad, or have studied there, at some point. He stated in Rajya Sabha, “I have the entire list with me, but I will not take names. I want to tell the members here about these are children and relatives of those separatists who advocate closure of schools in the valley and tell children to pick up stones.”
Amit Shah’s statement was right on point. The separatists advocate the continuance of Article 35A, which prohibits Indian citizens that do not belong to Jammu and Kashmir, from buying property there. Article 35A has prevented private multinational companies entering the valley, and has also negated the established of any top rank university. This has resulted in poor infrastructure and poor professional growth of the people living in Jammu and Kashmir; which is a condition favourable for the separatists to peddle their agenda. The separatists encourage the youth of the valley to remain unemployed and pelt stones at the armed forces. But when it comes to their own kin, they prefer to send them abroad for a good life.
According to a report by ToI, separatist organisation Tahreek-e-Hurriyat’s chairman Ashraf Sehrai’s two sons, Khalid and Abid Ahraf, work in Saudi Arabia and are settled there. Son of Kashmir’s Jamaat-e-Islami president Ghulam Muhammad Bhat is a doctor in Saudi Arabia. Dukhtaran-e-Millat’s Asiya Andrabi’s two sons, Muhammad bin Qasim and Ahmed bin Qasim are studying abroad in Malaysia and Australia, respectively. Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq’s sister Rabia Farooq is a doctor and is settled in the US. Bilal Lone’s daughter and son-in-law are settled in London while his younger daughter is studying in Australia. Wahidat-e-Islami leader Nisar Hussain Rather’s daughter works in Iran and is settled there with her husband.
Several of these separatists’ wards are settled in Pakistan as well. Neelam Gilani, son of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, recently completed his MBBS course in Pakistan. Daughters of Muslim League leaders Mohammad Yusuf Mir and Farooq Gatpuri are medical students in Pakistan. Democratic Political Movement leader Khwaja Fardaus Wani’s daughter is also in Pakistan studying medicine.
Amit Shah stated in Rajya Sabha that the two sons of Asiya Andrabi, who was arrested in a J&K terror funding case, have studied abroad and her third son is pursuing higher education in Malaysia. “One of the separatist leaders son is working in Saudi Arabia and is earning a package of ₹30 lakh per month.”
With this, Union Home Minister Amit Shah appealed to the Kashmiri youth to not fall into the separatists’ trap, who are just trying to mislead them. He stated, “please check that their own children are studying abroad and are living a good life there. Don’t get misled and take to stone-pelting,”
These are the same separatists who have called out for shutting down the schools in the valley and have been a hindrance to children being educated. They encourage the children to “fight for freedom” and engage in stone pelting in their crucial years when they are supposed be focusing on education and empowering themselves. This, coupled by the fact that the separatists prefer to send their own children abroad to get quality education and quality life proves that they really do not care about the valley’s future, neither do they care for any cause, because if they did; encouraging their own children to stay and fight in the valley would have been the first and the foremost priority of the separatists.