Authorities in India-administered Kashmir have seized greater than a rating of properties related to the banned Islamist motion Jamaat-i-Islami in current weeks, elevating tensions within the long-troubled Muslim majority area.

The newest wave of confiscations got here Saturday when a minimum of 20 properties have been seized on the advice of the State Investigative Agency, in line with a number of stories. Dozens extra properties are reported to have been focused for confiscation.

In one of many extra dramatic actions, Indian forces have been positioned on alert for the seizure on Dec. 20 of a two-story home in an upscale Srinigar neighborhood that when was the house of Syed Ali Geelani, a distinguished separatist chief who died final yr.

The raid was performed by India’s high terror-probing group, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), within the presence of native police.

A Geelani member of the family, who spoke to VOA on situation of anonymity for concern of official retaliation, was obscure when requested who presently owns the home.

“Perhaps, the property belonged to Jamaat-e-Islami, now a banned organization. We lived there for a short while,” the member of the family mentioned.

India banned Jamaat-e-Islami, or JeI, for 5 years beneath anti-terror legal guidelines In March 2019. The group, based as an Islamic reformist motion in 1941, was accused of being in “close touch with anti-India militant outfits” and of working to “escalate secessionist movement” within the Kashmir Valley.

JeI refuted the allegations, saying it was a socio-political and non secular group with no connection to the militancy that has troubled Kashmir for many years.

The NIA has been staging raids beneath the elevated authority it acquired when the Indian authorities revoked Kashmir’s restricted autonomy in 2019. Since then, the company has performed raids throughout the valley in a bid to crush separatist militants who’ve remained an element within the area regardless of the presence of a number of Indian secret-service companies.

Several of the newest property seizures have been performed by a newly constituted native police drive known as the State Investigative Agency.

On December 18, SIA mentioned JeI properties price 1 billion rupees [$12.1 million] have been seized in a number of districts of the valley. The company additionally mentioned it has recognized 188 properties belonging to Jamaat-e-Islami that both have been “notified or are under the process of being notified for further legal action.”

VOA approached a number of JeI members for remark however all refused to talk, fearing reprisals.

Vijay Kumar, whose title is extra director normal of Police Kashmir [ADGP], was quoted by an Indian TV channel WION saying the police will “seize all the properties of the people wherever there is an encounter or is being used as a hideout or are harboring the terrorists, their property will be seized.”

Kumar added that if there’s a “forceful entry of terrorists” into any home or different construction, the home proprietor or another member claiming duress ought to promptly inform authorities, including that there are provisions out there for hiding the id of such informants.

A authorized knowledgeable, who requested that his actual title not for use for safety causes, mentioned that seizure of any property by the state ought to happen solely after a court docket has decided that the property belongs to an illegal group.

“Government should follow the procedures which are already established under law instead of acting arbitrarily,” the knowledgeable mentioned.

Among these whose properties have been seized is Naseema Begum, 55. Seated alone contained in the kitchen of the home the place she is now staying, Begum mentioned her household was accused of harboring militants who have been killed throughout a firefight in Srinigar in September 2020.

“Police said a militant was killed in a lane adjacent to our house and the remaining two inside our lawn,” Begum mentioned. “They don’t believe us that militants may have sneaked into our premises from a neighboring colony after police conducted searches.”

She added that her household had left the house after police knocked at their door through the midnight raid.

“None of my family members has affiliation with militants,” Begum mentioned. “Can anyone say no to gunmen?” she requested.

Begum additionally decried the jailing of her three sons on fees of being “militant sympathizers,” which she mentioned stemmed from a go to to Pakistan by her youngest son.

“He visited there so that my younger daughter could get enrolled in any of the medical colleges of that country,” Begum mentioned.

The property seizures have prompted objections not solely from critics of Indian rule in Kashmir but in addition from individuals related to the New Delhi-backed state administration. Among these is Mehbooba Mufti — a former chief minister of Kashmir and the present chairperson of the Peoples Democratic Party — who termed the transfer “collective punishment on the people of Kashmir.”

“I see it as vengeance following the undemocratic move on 5 August 2019,” she mentioned in reference to the revocation of autonomy for Kashmir. “Tomorrow if they find out someone’s grandfather was a member of JeI, will they seize that property as well? Today it is happening with someone and tomorrow it can happen with anyone.”