SIA Seals Properties of Banned Jamaat e Islami Worth over Rs 100 Crore

Srinagar: The State Investigation Agency (SIA) of the Jammu and Kashmir police said on Saturday that they had sealed assets worth hundreds of crores allegedly belonging to the banned Jamat e Islami (JeI) J&K organization.

A spokesperson of the SIA said that on Saturday that the law enforcement agency identified properties worth about Rs 100 crores that were sealed for "usage and entry" in the North Kashmir districts of Baramulla, Bandipora, Kupwara and Ganderbal.

The latest properties under the agency net in the four districts are the third set of properties to be notified in a series of assets belonging to the Jamat. The SIA has so far identified as many as 188 JeI properties across the region and initiated action in these cases. Of the 188 identified properties, SIA today seized and sealed 11 more land and commercial properties of the banned organisation.

The action against JeI, the SIA claimed, is aimed at rooting out “terror funding” in Jammu and Kashmir. The agency said that the action was carried out in order to “choke the availability of funds for secessionist activities and to dismantle the ecosystem of anti-national elements and terror networks hostile to India's sovereignty.”

The properties believed to have been owned by JeI J&K were notified by concerned District Magistrates, according to an official statement, in the exercise of the powers conferred by Section 8 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and Notification No. 14017/7/2019, dated February 28, 2019, of Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

JeI J&K, an erstwhile socio-religious organisation, was banned by the authorities in the region in February 2019 for allegedly being involved in aiding militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. Many believed that Jamat was the “ideological back” of the militant outfits, especially Hizbul Mujahideen, and have created a so-called eco-system for anti-India hostilities. Many senior members of the JeI have, however, often denied having any role in aiding militancy.

The SIA, formed in November 2021 on the lines of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), in its first year of working has investigated over 450 cases. In its fresh action against the JeI, it has not only prohibited entry or use of the properties but marked them with what they referred to as a “Red entry” in the relevant revenue records, the official statement added.

The agency, however, added that similar action against over two dozen business establishments in Kupwara and Kangan was not taken.  “After due diligence, it was decided that these would be allowed to continue so that private persons who may not have any connections with JeI and are only tenants paying rent to JeI are not penalised and their livelihood not impaired,” the official spokesperson said.

The second set of properties to be notified was a set of 11 properties in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district where alleged JeI assets worth over 90 crores were barred from entry or usage. Earlier last month, the agency attached properties at nine locations worth over 2.5 crores in Shopian district. The properties in Shopian were the first to be notified in the series of properties belonging to JeI in view of the “significance” that the officials at the SIA linked to the South Kashmir district.

According to the officials, Saadu-din Tarabali and Ghulam Ahmad Ahrar, co-founders of JeI J&K, were the first to organize an Ijtima or religious gathering at Badami Bagh Shopian in 1942 much before the first all India Ijtima of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind at Pathankot in 1945.

JeI was founded by prominent Indian Islamic scholar and jurist Abul A'la Maududi in 1941 but the organisation split into four branches in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Jammu and Kashmir. In J&K, a few of the leading separatists including late Syed Ali Geelani belonged to JeI. The organisation fought successive elections in the 1970s and 1980s before giving up electoral politics in the 1990s. The organisation has been banned three times since it was established.