Ultras misguiding Kashmiri youth going to Pakistan for studies, say officials

Arjun Sharma

Jammu, May 3

The charge-sheet of the State Investigation Agency against three, including a Kashmiri student enrolled in a Pakistan university, has exposed how agencies in the neighbouring country have been not only misusing the travel facility between the two countries but also misguiding students going to Pakistan for higher studies, officials said.

The SIA had yesterday stated that it had filed a charge-sheet against Asif Shabir Naik, a resident of Kashtigarh in Doda, his father Shabir Hussain Naik and one Safdar Hussain under the anti-terror law. Asif, accused of passing information about Army installations to militants in Pakistan, has been in judicial custody since his arrest in Srinagar. His father and Safdar Hussain are currently operating from Pakistan.

Officials said this showed how Pakistan had been misusing higher studies as bait for recruitment in terror groups.

According to a recent report, 17 youths, who went to Pakistan for studies, have been killed at the Line of Control while infiltrating Kashmir, or during encounters with terror outfits.

The SIA has also invoked the legal tool of letters rogatory wherein a Pakistan’s court will be approached through the Indian court seeking assistance in providing information about the charge-sheeted individuals.

Asif Shabir Naik was enrolled in the International Islamic University in Islamabad in a mass communication programme, but he was working in the media cell of the banned terror outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, officials said. His father Shabir Hussain Naik heads the media wing of that terror group.

He was intercepted at the Srinagar airport based on intelligence inputs that he had been visiting terrorist and separatist training facilities. His phone’s forensic examination showed he had videographed Army installations along the Baramulla-Srinagar road and photographed the airport road and security features adjacent to it, officials said.

According to officials, the probe showed Naik had concealed that his father was in Pakistan and a member of the terror group and that he had falsely mentioned that he was visiting Pakistan to meet a relative (Subhan Bhat), a fictitious character.

The objective of Naik’s admission as a student in a mass media course in Pakistan was to return to India as a journalist and clandestinely get embedded in the system and receive instructions from across the border for planning, coordinating and executing not only propaganda operations but separatist and even violent terrorist actions.

Past incidents

According to a recent report, as many as 17 youths, who went to Pakistan for studies, have been killed at the Line of Control while infiltrating Kashmir, or during encounters with terror outfits. This shows Pakistan-based terror groups are using students against India, say officials.

To seek court’s help

The State Investigation Agency has invoked the legal tool of letters rogatory wherein a Pakistani court will be urged, seeking assistance in providing information about the charge-sheeted individuals. The SIA is a unit carved out of the Jammu and Kashmir police.

Nefarious designs of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen

• Asif Shabir Naik, who is in judicial custody, had been sending videos and photos of security installations to terror groups in Pakistan.
• He was enrolled in an Islamabad university, but actually worked for the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen where his father was media head.
• Asif didn’t tell authorities about his father’s association with the terror group. Shabir and his aide Safdar Hussain are in Pakistan.