File photo used for representation only

NEW DELHI: Stone pelting incidents in Jammu and Kashmir is “not a law and order issue”, rather these are outcome of a cleverly drafted conspiracy by Hurriyat leaders, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani and terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin , orchestrated with the covert and overt support and funding of Pakistan, the National Investigation Agency ( NIA ) has claimed.

“Stone pelting in Kashmir has become a full-fledged industry wherein the cadres of Hurriyat and its constituent groups have organised themselves at district, tehsil, wards and mohalla level, and leaders at appropriate stages have formed an armed wing represented by masked stone-pelters, consisting mainly of youth of Kashmir Valley ,” says NIA chargesheet, accessed by TOI.

Terming separatists as the “political face of the terrorism in Kashmir”, NIA says that All Parties Hurriyat Conference and terrorists have devised strategies as part of their “larger plot to break Jammu and Kashmir away from India”.

There are planners, strategists, fund raisers, cash couriers, logistic and support network, executors, publicity managers and political propagandists who continuously devise strategies and programmes by way of organising bandhs, forcible closure of roads, government establishments, damaging public property including burning of schools, arson, bank looting and directing mass violence against security forces, in general and at encounter sites, it says.

The Hurriyat cadres — called ‘Rukuns’ — collect funds from shopkeepers, businessmen and residents of Kashmir, sometimes even threatening apple growers to pay Rs 5 to Rs 10 lakh.

These professional stone pelters initiate violence in various urban, semi-urban and rural areas of Kashmir, by coercing innocent people to attack army, CRPF or J&K police, thereby using them as “cannon fodder”.

To control the engineered violence, security forces deployed for maintenance of law and order are “often compelled to use force, including pellet guns”, NIA says, adding that youth injured by pellet guns are used as “trophies” by the separatists to highlight their agenda.

An elaborate calendar of protests, authored by joint resistance leadership — including Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik — having detailed instructions of hartal(strike), picketing, blockage of roads/routes, suspension of public transport, instruction for organising procession and marches, writing of graffiti on walls, exhorting people to play Azadi Taranas (songs) and complete shutdown of markets and other economic activities, is disseminated in advance.

Asserting that violence has affected the economy of Kashmir, NIA says, “The long periods of shutdown and massive violence/stone pelting has brought Kashmir to the brink of economic collapse”NIA probe has further revealed that Kashmiri students who go to Pakistan universities are either relatives of former/active militants or known to Hurriyat leaders.

