NL Desk
New Delhi, July 05:
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has accessed various recommendation letters by separatists for Pakistani visas for students from Jammu and Kashmir whereby their contributions in the stir against the security forces were highlighted, officials have said.
The NIA had earlier red-flagged admissions to medical institutions in Pakistan on the recommendations of separatists in Jammu and Kashmir and termed them as an “alternative mechanism” for funding of terror groups.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who recently resigned from the Hurriyat Conference as its life-time chairman has brought the spotlight on the alleged sale of medical seats in Pakistan. In his letter dissociating himself from the Hurriyat Conference, Geelani accused its Muzaffarabad counterpart of Hurriyat chapter of “open rebellion” and “financial irregularities.” “For the past some time, and specifically for the last two years, many complaints were received about this AJK chapter of APHC. Recently, after an investigation, some [members] were dismissed, and some more are under investigation… To circumvent the process of transparency and accountability, your representatives started non-cooperation with the Convenor,” Geelani said in his resignation letter. The investigation, Hurriyat sources say, was over an alleged sale of medical seats in Pakistan.
Pakistan offered a sponsored quota for Kashmiri students?
For over two decades, the Pakistan government has been reserving a special quota for the students of Jammu and Kashmir in all its professional courses, especially medical and engineering. The students also could take admission for higher education. Students from Jammu and Kashmir are broadly classified in two categories: a) those applying for admission under foreign student seats through the ministry of education, Pakistan, and b) the students applying for admission under the scholarship programme.
The students applying through foreign student seats have to pay the normal fee that any foreign student pays. But under the scholarship programme, the students are provided 100 per cent scholarship, free accommodation and per diem. The students, whose parents or close relatives have been killed by the security forces in Kashmir or have suffered “at the hands of Indian forces”, are given preference for seats under the scholarship programme.
Every year, around 50 students go to Pakistan under the scholarship programme for MBBS alone while a similar number of students get admission in other courses. The students are distributed in different colleges of Pakistan.
This year, the Pakistan government had announced 1,600 scholarships for Kashmiri students. This was disclosed in a meeting of Pakistan National Assembly's Standing Committee for Federal Education and Professional Training. However, due to the pandemic and ban on international travel no student has been able to go to Pakistan this year so far.
Hurriyat leaders enjoyed privilege to nominate students?
While there is a cut-off percentage for admission to various courses, the recommendation for the students under the scholarship programme is given by the separatist leaders. Over the years both factions of the separatist conglomerate Hurriyat Conference have been issuing recommendation letters to the students for admission in professional courses in Pakistan. However, the Hurriyat led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani stopped issuing the recommendation letters two years ago after allegations of corruption surfaced.
The controversy?
Over the years, there have been allegations that some separatist leaders, especially in Pakistan, are demanding monetary benefits from the students before issuing them a recommendation letter and the basic criteria set by the Pakistan government is being flouted. There were allegations that even wards of some police officers have managed recommendation letters from the separatist leaders.
In 2019, another controversy surfaced when the National Board of Examination refused to allow a student to take foreign medical graduate examination/screening test, mandatory for any Indian who obtains a medical degree from a foreign country. The students had studied medicine in Mirpur in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, a part of J&K state (before Pakistano raid and occupation) being part of India. The student approached the Jammu and Kashmir High Court that asked the Ministry of External Affairs to consider recognising the medical degree of the student. “There should be no dispute that the area known as PoK, where the medical college is situated is part of India though it is on the other side of LoC and is under the occupation and administrative control of Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” ruled the court. “If that be the admitted position, a medical institution operating in the area can't be expected to seek any recognition from the Medical Council of India (MCI)”.
In 2017, the NIA had registered a case to probe the terror funding and arrested over a dozen people in this connection including Altaf Ahmad Shah alias ‘Fantoosh', son-in-law of pro-Pakistan separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani who last week disassociated himself from politics.
The successor of 90-year-old Geelani in Pakistan's chapter of Hurriyat Conference had alleged that the rival faction of the outfit was selling seats to professional courses. Following the NIA probe in the cases, no names were recommended for admissions by the separatist groups from Kashmir last year.
For many years, more than 100 students were being annually sent from Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan for higher studies especially MBBS and the NIA has unearthed the nexus between students, Pakistan High Commission officials and separatists in the Valley, the officials said.
They said the separatist leaders used to charge money which was meant for spreading terror and separatist activities in the Kashmir valley after the NIA crackdown on all non-banking channels including ‘hawala'.
In its charge sheet filed in 2018, the NIA said that during the course of its probe, it was found that students who were proceeding to Pakistan on student visas were either relatives of ex-militants or relatives of families of active militants who had indulged in various anti-national activities and had migrated to Pakistan or they were known to Hurriyat leaders.
Further in its probe, the NIA seized recommendation letters from separatists in which links to social media showed the prospective students' participation in anti-national activities, the officials said.
The admissions of students became an “alternative mechanism” for funding of terror groups in the Valley, a senior official said.
The official, referring to the NIA charge sheet, said the agency had red-flagged the admission schemes offered by Pakistan as there was a nexus wherein the terrorists, the Hurriyat and the Pakistan establishment were “the three vertices and they are ostensibly patronising the Kashmir students in order to prepare a generation of doctors and technocrats in Kashmir who will have leanings towards Pakistan”.
Besides a host of separatists, the NIA had arrested noted businessman Zahoor Ahmed Watali in connection with the case. All of them have been behind bars for over two years now and have failed in securing bail.
Watali had secured bail from the Delhi High Court but the same was reversed by the Supreme Court in 2019. (With inputs from published reports)
