“The ban on Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), Jammu and Kashmir is to ensure complete non-functioning of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) as it has been the brain behind the separatist group,” said a Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) official, reports Greater Kashmir on March 5. The “sole” agenda of the Government of India’s ban on Jamaat-e-Islami is to curb separatism in Jammu and Kashmir as the organisation has been the “brain” behind the APHC which, the investigating agencies claim, has been ideologically supporting Pakistan-sponsored militancy, said sources in the UMHA. Sources said the JeI (J&K) has been “instrumental behind the APHC's role in militant activities, especially in the Valley, with the support of Pakistan for the last three decades.”
The ban would help the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and other agencies take action against the JeI (J&K), which has been providing "logistic support" and feeding "new ideas" to the APHC for spreading militancy in the Valley, under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), said the official. Normally, the official said, the probe agencies or the police would have to go through legal documentations and collect “more strong evidence to prove the illegal activities of any organisation”. The APHC, the official said, is a conglomerate of organisations with “separatist and militant leanings” and has been instrumental in “stone pelting and recruiting youth to join militancy through radicalization” in the Valley. The NIA has already registered a case against it besides arresting several separatist leaders. The Home Ministry's decision to ban the JeI (J&K) came after it received inputs that the Hurriyat has become active to increase the "overground workers" support on the JeI's instructions for enhancing militant activities, not only in J&K but across the country, said the official.