Three years ago, Yasmeen Akhtar and her parents in Safakadal area of Srinagar were feeling on top of the world. Akhtar was engaged to a young businessman settled in Mauritius. The happiness was more on her Hyderabadi fianc?e’s family members who were boasting to get a Kashmiri bride. Shortly after the engagement, a Nikah ceremony was held.

But, the happiness did not last long. Before the marriage was scheduled, Yasmeen applied for the passport on the insistence of her would-be in-laws. They wanted her to pack for Mauritius shortly after the marriage ceremony. The days changed into months and years but she did not get the passport. The authorities said that her security report was “adverse”. Reason: Yasmeen’s first cousin was a Hizbul Mujahideen militant who was killed by police in 2006, allegedly in custody.

Yasmeen’s family is on the “security index”, a blacklist prepared by the intelligence wing of the state police. For their entry in the list, no one from the family has been able to perform even Hajj pilgrimage during the past decade.

Abdur Rashid Hurrah’s family in south Kashmir’s Shopian district has been even more vulnerable. Hurrah was among the first boys who crossed the Line of Control to become militants. After returning from the training camp, he was active for some time, got arrested and served a long jail term. Finally, he was released by the court and pledged to lead a normal life.

But the police indexing wreaked havoc with his dreams and those of his family members. Both his graduate younger brothers – Abdul Qayoom and Abdul Majeed – got government jobs in police and agriculture departments, respectively. However, they could not join the services due to “adverse” report by the police. “During the police verification, an officer virtually reprimanded my brother and warned him against applying for any government job,” Hurrah said.
Hurrah himself was victimized.

In 1996, he tried his luck in pharmaceutical business. His “Madina Medical Agency” won the contract for supply of Intravenous Fluids to five associated hospitals of Government Medical College, Srinagar. “It was Rs 65 lakh contract but my indexing in the police records was used against me. I was told to quit the contract or be ready for arrest under Public Safety Act,” he said. The easier option was to quit. He even left the pharmaceutical business and tried his luck in share market and real estate.

Until recently, the security establishment’s “security index” covered an estimated 60,000 families in Jammu and Kashmir. The majority in the list were those families whose one or several members were directly involved in anti-India armed movement, which began in 1988. However, the indexing is not restricted to those involved in militancy. Even people belonging to separatist political groups or now-defunct pro-government militia are also in the blacklist.

The latest addition to the list is youngsters who have been arrested on charges of stone-pelting or protesting. The list of indexed families has now swelled to 75,000.However, there is no official confirmation.

Tufail Ahmad, a youngster from old Srinagar city was arrested by police in a nocturnal raid for his alleged involvement in stone-pelting.

A student of Higher Secondary, Tufail had applied to appear in the annual examination before his detention. He sought permission to appear in the examination but the authorities refused. “This is the first step that would spoil his (Tufail’s) career. The authorities must have entered his name in the blacklist. He is now barred for jobs, foreign travel and even leading a peaceful life,” said advocate Ashraf Wani, who is fighting several similar cases in the High Court.

The practice of arresting youngsters and detaining them under Public Safety Act continued despite Home Minister P Chidambaram’s commitment in New Delhi on September 24. Chidambaram, while announcing 8-point politico-economic package for Jammu and Kashmir following approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security said that the youngsters arrested during the recent turmoil would be released and cases withdrawn against them.

A senior separatist leader says that two months down the line, there are no indications that the accused youngsters are allowed to lead a normal life. “Those who have been arrested, continue to rot in jails and detention centers. The life has been turned hell for those who have evaded arrest. Their houses are raided, relatives intimidated and friends quizzed. Some of them have migrated to safer areas to avoid arrest and subsequent mental and physical torture,” he said.

Police appeared to be magnanimous when a teenager from Nishat locality in outskirts of Srinagar was set free without any charges. The boy was arrested for uploading a list, predominantly consisting of police officers, on social networking site Facebook with an intention to defame them in public domain. During the investigations, it revealed that the boy had only shared the information, prepared by some other Facebook user under a fake identity. The police issued a statement that the boy was released in view of his future and all charges against him were withdrawn.

However, the amnesty appeared to be restricted. The manhunt for young boys continues in every nook and cranny of the Valley. The police chief Kuldeep Khuda said that police have devised a specific strategy to nab all youngsters who have been instrumental in staging protests and organizing stone-pelting. A senior police officer in south Kashmir’s Islamabad town sought public help in arresting fifty boys of the locality. The nocturnal raids and search operations have become a routine in the locality. In Bandipora pocket of north Kashmir, three youngsters were arrested for their participation in demonstrations. The police worked overnight to prepare dossiers against them and the deputy commissioner vetted slapping of PSA.

On the face of it, the authorities claim that not more than 60 alleged stone-pelters have been booked under Public Safety Act. However, a number of detained youngsters is quite high, most of them remaining in judicial custody or police custody. “Whether the PSA would be slapped on them or not, their names are entered in the blacklist of the police records. This will jeopardize their careers,” Wani said.

And, the catchment area is not restricted to the Kashmir valley alone. Sources said that a group of young doctors who staged a token protest in Jammu during the peak of agitation in Kashmir valley this summer has been put on the watch list. Even, the students who participated in a recent seminar in New Delhi where author-activist Arundhati Roy and veteran secessionist leader Syed Ali Geelani spoke in support of freedom for Jammu and Kashmir, are being identified and tracked down. The antecedents of some of the students, who protected Geelani when a group of Kashmiri Pandits and BJP activists attempted to attack him, are being probed. Sources said that when a huge gathering of Kashmiri students held a candle light march in Jantar Mantar, sleuths of police and intelligence agencies filmed them for their own records.

Some newspaper reports suggest that the non-resident Kashmiris who staged protest demonstrations in the US, UK and several European countries are being watched carefully.
The issue of indexing Kashmiri families has been highlighted quite often. Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, during his tenure as Chief Minister of the state (2005-8) asked the police to be lenient on issuing travel documents to people who have “had no direct links with the militancy but are indexed for the fault of any of their close or distant relative”.

He issued the instructions in the backdrop of rejection of thousands of passport applications of Hajj pilgrimage aspirants. A top police officer said that the then chief minister’s intervention helped many a person to embark on Hajj pilgrimage. At that time, even senior separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani and his wife were issued special time-bound passports to perform Hajj.

Interestingly, the entry in “security index” is based on the ground report furnished by several wings of police. In each police station, apart from the executive police, the counter-intelligence wing known as Special Brach and Counter Intelligence Kashmir (CIK), maintain separate records about individuals. The security clearance, issued from the headquarters of the Special Branch, compares every report collected separately from the three wings. Any “adverse” comment is enough to bar employment, right to travel abroad or even establishment of a private enterprise with the help of government.

The reports are often flimsy and bereft of logic and reason. For example, the SBK officials tagged Hajj pilgrim Muhammad Anwar Mir of Tral with a report that his nephew was a militant. Mir was taken aback on finding the charges given the fact that his former militant nephew has long back joined the mainstream and even got a job in police department. Mir pleaded his case with the Additional Director General of Police (intelligence) and managed clearance. Interestingly, the militant-turned-policeman’s mother was not given the requisite clearance, which barred her from embarking on the Hajj pilgrimage.

This indicates that the list is not being updated to delete names of those “anti-nationals” who have died, come overground or even joined the government. They continue to figure in the “index” or have relatives who do or, in some cases, have names “similar” to the ones mentioned in the list.

The policemen on the ground are extremely sensitive to file reports. Shakeela Akhtar got a government job as teacher in school education department recently in north Kashmir. Her salary was withheld for around a year for want of security clearance. Last month, she received the clearance with a subject line that nothing has been found adverse against her. However, the police have annexed a disclaimer that her father-in-law is a sympathizer of a known separatist political party.

The top-brass of the police establishment chose to maintain silence on the sensitive issue.  “Security clearance in the Valley is an extremely sensitive issue and we are very strict with it,” a senior officer was quoted as saying by a national newspaper on the issue. “And then, it is the subjective discretion with the state to issue passport to a citizen,” the anonymous officer was reported having said. The “subjectivity” of the policy explains as to why some separatist leaders are allowed to travel abroad and others, with exactly similar “qualifications” are barred. Javed Mir, vice Chairman of a JKLF faction is crying hoarse for not getting a passport in the backdrop of the fact that his former comrades involved in same activities have been allowed international travel.

Some political observers in Kashmir are of the opinion that state’s policy to index a section of population is, inadvertently, going against the policy of inclusion. This may soothe some separatist ideologues who want dissent to flourish through sustained government policies. “The government of India is purporting that Kashmiris are their own people, militants are misguided youth and young stone-pelters have issues of unemployment. If that was the case, why the indexing of own people is rampant to darken their future prospectus,” asked college lecturer Muhammad Rafiq.

The mainstream political class and a section of top police officers have understood the issue and pleaded at various levels for a “comprehensive update”. However, there is nobody around to overhaul the system that has settled in the police department for more than two decades. The political leadership is not willing to envisage a major policy shift.

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