Senior PDP leader offers legal aid to Jamaat-e-Islami, JKLF against ban

Srinagar, Mar 26: Senior PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig on Tuesday offered the Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu Kashmir and the JKLF legal help to contest the ban imposed on them by the Centre, saying while these outfits were ideologically opposed to his party, he would do it to uphold civil liberties.

"Although both Jamaat-e-Islami and JKLF are our opponents, we are ready to provide legal help in contest the ban imposed on them. It is a matter of principles and for upholding civil liberties," Baig said.

The senior leader made the offer of legal assistance to the two banned outfits while addressing a workers' meeting in Baramulla. The Union Home Ministry last week banned the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), led by Muhammad Yasin Malik, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

As per a notification issued on March 22, the central government is "of the opinion that the said organisation is involved in anti-national and subversive activities and is in close touch with militant outfits and is supporting extremism in the state".

In an earlier notification issued in February, the Centre had banned the Jamaat, saying that the organisation was "in close touch with militant outfits" and that the group claimed "secession of a part of the Indian territory from the Union". Both the outfits have been banned for five years.

PTI