Police Attach Property Of Jailed Ex-Kashmir Bar Association President Mian Qayoom In 2009 Case

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Police have attached the residential house of former Kashmir Bar Association president, Mian Abdul Qayoom, who is presently under detention for his alleged involvement in the killing of a young lawyer, in the 2009 anti-India seminar case.

An order issued by Director General of Police Nalin Prabhat directed the attachment of the house in Srinagar’s Barzulla as “proceeds of terrorism” under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

The two-storey residential house, along with land measuring over two acres, was attached “for concealing incriminatory material and for furtherance of terrorist activities,” said an order signed by the DGP.

The case dates to December 2009, when Police Station Shaheed Gunj received information through reliable sources that an anti-India seminar was organised by separatist leaders led by the Muslim League’s Vice Chairman Feroz Khan on the death anniversary of Pakistan’s founder, the late Ali Mohammad Jinnah, in Srinagar, it said.

Qayoom, alongside Duktaraan-e-Millat chief Asiya Andrabi and Shabir Ahmad Najar (District President of the Muslim League), delivered anti-India speeches and raised anti-national slogans, prompting police to file a case against them.

“They (accused) stressed that the future of Kashmir depends upon Pakistan and there should be Islamic law in J&K,” reads the order, prompting police to file a case under UAPA.

During investigations, police searched the house of the accused, Qayoom, and recovered “incriminatory material”. This includes banned literature, a blank letterhead of Hizbul Mujahideen with a seal impression, a press-note-like document of Hizbul Mujahideen (in English), a letter from Syed Salahuddin addressed to William Jefferson Clinton, the then President of the United States, and a seal impression of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen in Urdu. These were recovered from the residential premises in the presence of independent witnesses and the Executive Magistrate.

Accordingly, police invoked Sections 38 and 39 of UAPA in the case to book the accused.

The police said that the evidence has prima facie established that Mian Qayoom “used his residential premises for concealing incriminatory material and for furtherance of terrorist activities”. Hence, the residential house falls within the ambit of “proceeds of terrorism” under Section 2(g) of UAPA and is attached, it added.

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