Srinagar: Two classifieds appearing in local newspapers on Thursday came as a huge surprise to many people, and for some incredulous, in Jammu and Kashmir and beyond.
Separatist patriarch Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s granddaughter Ruwa Altaf Shah and jailed separatist leader Shabir Ahmed Shah’s daughter Sama Shabir have in these classifieds not only distanced themselves from the political ideology of their kin but also publicly pledged their allegiance to India.
In the public notice, Ms. Sama has sought to clarify that she has not been associated nor has any affiliation with the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP), the organisation her father formed in 1998. In October last year, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) banned the JKDFP, a constituent of the separatist amalgam Hurriyat Conference, for five years under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, citing its "anti-India" and "pro-Pakistan" activities as the main reason for it. Subsequently, the ministry empowered the states and Union Territories to seize assets of the JKDFP.
Ms. Sama in her public notice further stated that she does not have any inclination towards the ideology of the JKDFP and warned that if any person (or persons) uses her name with it she will take legal action against him or her. “It is further clarified that I am a loyal citizen of India and that I am not affiliated with any person or any organization which is against the sovereignty of the Union of India.”
70-year-old Shah who is lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail for the past nearly seven years faces trial on various charges including terror funding and money laundering. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in July 2017 in the alleged money laundering case dating back to 2005.
In an identical public notice, Ms. Ruwa stated that she does not have any connection or affiliation with the Hurriyat Conference faction that was led by her late grandfather. She further declared, “I do not have any inclination or sympathy towards the ideology of the amalgam…any use of my name for this organisation shall be liable to legal action from my side.”
She pledged, “I am a loyal citizen of India not affiliated with any organisation or association which has the agenda against the Union of India, and I owe allegiance to the constitution of the country (India).”
Ms. Ruwa is a journalist by profession. Her father Altaf Ahmad Shah alias ‘Fantosh’, a son-in-law of Syed Geelani, who too was lodged in Tihar Jail died of renal cell cancer at New Delhi’s AIIMS in October 2022. He and Shabir Shah are among about a dozen prominent separatists who were in a 12,794-page charge-sheet filed before a special court by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) some time ago accused of criminal conspiracy, waging war against the country and indulging in unlawful activities.
23-year-old Ms. Sama, a former CBSE topper in Kashmir, was summoned by the ED in 2019 in connection with the case, but she did not appear at that time as she was in the United Kingdom studying law.
Ms. Ruwa who last year got married to a Srinagar resident Moonis ul Islam Mattoo was earlier studying and working in Türkiye. She returned to India for vacations in 2021 but could not go back to Türkiye because of reported international travel restrictions on her. Syed Geelani had stepped down as the chairman of his faction of the Hurriyat Conference a couple of months before he passed away after prolonged illness on September 1, 2021.
