Masrat Alam

The government got the most sought after man, on whom it had placed a Rs 10 lakh bounty. Masrat Alam had evaded arrest for more than four months while leading the current uprising. KHURSHEED WANI reports.

On October 18 evening, sharpshooters of J&K Police worked in close coordination to hit an important target. Police communication surveillance team picked up an important clue from a mobile conversation between two close relatives of fugitive Masarat Alam Bhat. In minutes, a top police official rang up one of the speakers, called him to his office and asked a volley of questions. Meanwhile, a police party rushed towards Tailbal locality in the periphery of Hazratbal area in Srinagar. They got the target, unawares. Alam made a last ditch effort to evade arrest. He crossed two fence walls but there was no escape route. Before he could attempt to climb up the third wall, he was overpowered by the policemen.

Promotions to the raiding party, Rs 10 lakh bounty on the fugitive’s head was not misplaced for the prized catch. For last four months, Masarat Alam Bhat was the fulcrum of the anti-India stir, which almost paralyzed the writ of the government. In fact, he was the man who consolidated the simmering anti-government sentiment into a full-fledged rebellion, expanded its range and scale to revive the almost derailed separatist campaign in Kashmir.

Police’s provincial chief Shiv Murari Sahai, a master in intelligence gathering and its scientific executions, described Masarat’s arrest as his “big achievement” for restoration of peace and order in the Valley. Masarat is not a militant but he lived in the past four months in a guerilla style. He was trapped like a hardcore armed rebellion. He is first non-militant rebel after Shabir Shah who invited bounty on his head. Shabir Shah was non-militant proclaimed offender in 1989 who had a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh on his head  besides four founders of JKLF – Hameed Sheikh, Ashfaq Majeed, Javed Mir and Yasin Malik.

Soon after Masarat’s arrest, a special team of intelligence officers flew to Srinagar from New Delhi to “read the mind” of the rebel who had become a “real problem” for the government.

Police was hunting for Masarat from the day he went underground in last week of June, barely ten days after he was bailed out after two-year-long incarceration. He was jailed in August 2008 for spearheading a massive agitation against the controversial Amarnath land transfer followed by agitation against the alleged economic blockade of Kashmir valley. One of the allegations against him was that he played a pivotal role to cobble up unity among the fragmented separatist groups.  During his two-year detention, the court quashed charges against him umpteen times but he was re-arrested each time. In May-end, the court finally bailed him out. Meanwhile, Army had killed three men in a fake encounter in Macchil sector of Kupwara and passed them off as armed infiltrators.

On June 11, Masarat was at his Zaindar Mohalla residence where hundreds of his supporters, friends and relatives were coming to meet him, when his mentor Syed Ali Geelani had appealed for peaceful demonstrations against Macchil encounter. In the evening, police fired teargas shells on stone-throwers in old city and one such explosive hit an unsuspecting 17-year Tufail Ahmad Mattoo and killed him instantly. A string of killings followed adding to the simmering discontent and anger against the government.

This was the time when Masarat Alam found a role for himself. On June 25, a select group of journalists were escorted to an unknown old city location where Masarat Alam spoke in a typical guerrilla style. He announced “Quit Jammu and Kashmir Campaign” and asked Indian soldiers to leave Kashmir Valley. This was the day when Masarat announced first protest calendar and asked the people to prepare for a “long and sustained battle to achieve the goal of freedom”. He worked out schedule for shutdowns, protest marches and sit-ins besides urging youngsters to launch internet war through social networking sites and introduced graffiti writing like “Go India Go back”.

The 39-year-old Masarat, who is an alumini of prestigious Tyndale Biscoe School and Sri Pratap College, is tech-savvy. When he was arrested he possessed a laptop computer and four cell phones.

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