india

Updated: Mar 31, 2019 05:08 IST

A week after it banned, Yasin Malik’s Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) as an unlawful association, the Centre on Friday set up a tribunal that will adjudicate whether sufficient grounds exist for such a move against the militant group and the J&K chapter of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI). The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal will comprise justice Chander Shekhar of the Delhi high court.

An official notification said the tribunal had been formed “for the purpose of adjudicating whether or not there is sufficient cause of declaring the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), Jammu and Kashmir, and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (Mohd. Yasin Malik faction) (JKLF-Y), as unlawful association.”

JeI’s J&K unit was banned on February 28 in a crackdown following the February 14 suicide car bombing in Pulwama that left at least 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers dead. The ban on JKLF followed on March 22.

After a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS),the highest decision-making body on security issues, Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba said the JKLF had been banned for “funneling funds” into militancy and “fomenting terrorism.”

The Jammu and Kashmir police and other enforcement agencies have named the JKLF in as many as 37 first information reports, the Centre said.