Pulwama terror attack: Security of 18 Kashmiri Separatists withdrawn

Jammu, Feb 20: In the wake Pulwama terrorist attack, the security of 18 separatists and 155 political leaders has been withdrawn.

Separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani and JKLF chief Yaseen Malik are among those whose security has been withdrawn. Also, the security of Wahid Parra, a close aide of former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, and ex-bureaucrat Shah Faesal has also been with drawn.

Addressing a press conference in Srinagar last week, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said the security given to people getting funds from Pakistan and its snooping agency ISI should be reviewed.

A security review meeting, which was held here under the chairmanship of state chief secretary BVR Subrahmanyam, took the decision as it was felt that providing security to these separatist leaders is a "wastage" of scarce state resources which could be better utilised elsewhere, an official spokesperson said.

Besides Geelani, Malik, Islam and Khan, the others named in the list are Aga Syed Mosvi, Maulvi Abbas Ansari and his son Masroor, Saleem Geelani, Zaffar Akbar Bhat, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza, Farooq Ahmed Kichloo, Aga Syed Abul Hussain, Abdul Gani Shah and Mohd Musadiq Bhat.

In addition, the security of 155 political persons and activists, who did not require the security provided to them based on their threat assessment and activities, was also withdrawn.

According to the officials, the list mainly comprises leaders from the People's Democratic Party (PDP), an ally of the BJP in the state government till June last year.

This includes Faesal, the 2010 IAS topper who quit bureaucracy to join politics, PDP leader Wahid Parra and Salman Reshi, the officials said.

Through this, over 1,000 police personnel and over 100 vehicles are freed to do regular police work, they said.

The decision comes in the aftermath of the February 14 Pulwama terror attack in which 40 paramilitary personnel were killed

Forty CRPF personnel were killed and five others injured on February 14 in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir when a Jaish-e-Mohammad suicide bomber rammed a vehicle carrying over 100 kg of explosives into their bus in Pulwama district. The bus was part of a convoy of 78 vehicles carrying the CRPF personnel from Jammu to Srinagar.

OneIndia News with PTI inputs