Jailed separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah’s daughter Sama Shabir and Hurriyat patriarch Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s granddaughter Ruwa Shah have put out nearly identical notices in local newspapers in Kashmir, disassociating themselves from “separatist ideology” and pledging their loyalty to “the sovereignty of Union of India”.
Ruwa Shah, whose father and Geelani’s son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah died last year while in jail over charges of terror funding, also distanced herself from the Hurriyat Conference faction founded by her late grandfather, in a notice in the newspapers last week. She declared that she has no inclination or sympathy towards its ideology.
“I am a loyal citizen of India not affiliated with any organisation or association which has an agenda against the Union of India and I owe allegiance to the Constitution of my country (India),” Shah said.
In a separate public notice, published in a local newspaper Thursday, 23-year-old Sama Shabir said she was “a loyal Indian citizen” and distanced herself from the banned separatist organisation founded by her father, who is currently in Tihar Jail on money laundering and terror funding charges.
“I, Sama Shabir Shah… want to clarify that I have not been associated nor have an affiliation with the Democratic Freedom Party, nor do have any inclination towards the ideology of the Democratic Freedom Party,” she said. “I hereby declare that if any person uses my name with the said party, Democratic Freedom Party, I shall take legal action against them… I am a loyal citizen of India and I am not affiliated with any person or organisation which is against the sovereignty of the Union of India.”
It’s possible that this is the first time a relative of a separatist leader in Jammu and Kashmir has distributed these notices.
Shabir Shah, 70, who founded the Democratic Freedom Party, has been in prison since 2017. In July 2017, the Enforcement Directorate arrested him for violating the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and placed him in Tihar Jail. In 2019, the National Investigation Agency took custody of him in an alleged terror funding case, along with separatist leaders Masarat Alam and Syeda Asiya Andrabi.
The government also banned the Democratic Freedom Party as an unlawful association under the UAPA.
The case stemmed from a 2005 incident in which Mohammed Aslam Wani, an alleged hawala dealer, was apprehended by the Delhi Police with a substantial amount of cash, purportedly intended for Shah.
Sama Shabir was summoned by the ED in 2019 in connection with the case, but she did not appear at that time as she was in the United Kingdom studying law.
Apart from the crackdown on separatist leaders and their sympathisers, their family members have complained of being denied travel documents or been put on the Exit Control List, thus preventing them for travelling abroad for studies or work.
