NIA arrests failed to scare separatists, says Mirwaiz

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 20

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of a separatist faction and member of the joint resistance leadership, on Friday said the arrests made by the NIA over the past year had failed to scare separatist leaders.

The separatist leader alleged the arrests made by the NIA were a “ploy to intimidate the people’s leadership and instil a fear of grave consequences”. He said the attempt, however, had “miserably failed”.

“It will be one year on July 24 since the NIA started the arbitrary arrests of political leaders and activists which continue to go on. This ploy to intimidate the people’s leadership and instil a fear of grave consequences has miserably failed,” Mirwaiz said during his sermon at Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid.

Several influential mid-rung separatist leaders, including those affiliated with the separatist faction headed by Mirwaiz and another faction headed by Syed Ali Geelani, were arrested by the NIA, which last year began investigating money-laundering aimed at financing separatists’ activities.

Mirwaiz said Kashmiris are “far too politically mature and conscious people” who have seen “enough such plots and ploys”. “(People) understand the motive behind them and even people of India cannot be fooled by such tactics for long,” Mirwaiz said.