Following MHA ban, UAPA Tribunal seeks response of J&K's AAC by May 16

New Delhi, May 2 (IANS) The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal has directed the banned J&K-based Awami Action Committee (AAC), headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and its leaders to appear before it on May 16 or file their responses through lawyers over the Centre’s decision to notify it as outlawed outfit, an official notice said on Friday.

The Tribunal, comprising Justice Sachin Datta, has issued the notice to AAC and its leaders for the purpose of adjudicating whether or not there is sufficient cause for declaring the AAC as an unlawful association.

The notice issued by the Registrar of the Tribunal, based in the Delhi High Court, said, “You are required to appear before the Tribunal on May 16 at 5 p.m. in the Delhi High Court for further proceedings. Appearance can also be caused through a duly authorised and instructed counsel/advocate.”

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) banned the J&K-based Awami Action Committee (AAC) for five years in a notification issued on March 11.

The MHA notification said that the AAC was a secessionist organisation indulging in anti-national activities and encouraging youths to resort to violence.

The Tribunal’s move to allow the AAC to present its objections or reply on the MHA’s notification is a precursor to deciding whether to issue an order confirming the declaration made by the Centre.

The UAPA provides that no such ban shall come into effect unless the same is confirmed by the Tribunal.

While announcing the ban on AAC in March, the MHA said the outfit is involved in promoting and aiding the secession of Jammu and Kashmir from India by involving in anti-national and subversive activities; sowing seeds of dis-affection amongst people; exhorting people to destabilise law and order; encouraging the use of arms to separate Jammu and Kashmir from the Union of India and promoting hatred against established Government.

The Ministry also said that the leaders and members of AAC have been involved in mobilising funds for perpetrating unlawful activities, including supporting secessionist, separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

Justifying its decision to ban the outfit for five years, the Centre also pointed to the fact that the National Investigation Agency had filed charge sheet against Aftab Ahmad Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam (spokesman and media advisor of AAC) and 11 others before a Special Court in New Delhi on January 18, 2018 under sections 120B, 121, 121A and 124A of Indian Penal Code that deal with offence like sedition, conspiracy, crime of waging war.

They have also been charged under sections 13, 16, 17, 18, 20, 39 and 40 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, that deal with various aspects of unlawful activities and terrorist acts, including punishment for unlawful activities, terrorist acts, raising funds for terrorist activities, conspiracy and other preparatory acts, membership of terrorist organisations, and support to terrorist organisations, it said.

On April 11, separatist and religious leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq alleged that the authorities had placed him under house arrest in Srinagar, thereby preventing him from delivering his weekly sermon and offering prayers at the Jamia Masjid.

The ACC was formed in 1963 by the late Mirwaiz Maulana Mohammad Farooq during the Holy Relic agitation.

After the elder Mirwaiz was assassinated by terrorists in 1990 in his uptown Nigeen residence in Srinagar city, the ACC came to be headed by his son, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

--IANS

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