The Union Government on Saturday extended the ban on jailed Yasin Malik’s Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).
With the new order, the organisation has been termed as an ‘Unlawful Association’ for a further period of five years.
Home Minister Amit Shah alleged that the organisation threatened India’s integrity by promoting, aiding and abetting the secession of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The banned outfit continues to engage in activities that foment terror and secessionism in Jammu and Kashmir. Anyone found challenging the security, sovereignty and integrity of the nation will face harsh legal consequences,” he said in a post on X.
The Home Ministry has also declared four factions of the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League (JKPL) — namely, JKPL (Mukhtar Ahmed Waza), JKPL (Bashir Ahmad Tota), JKPL (Ghulam Mohammad Khan) and JKPL (Aziz Sheikh) led by Yaqoob Sheikh — as ‘Unlawful Associations’.
JKLF was first banned in 2019, under Sections including 3(1) of the draconian anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA).
This came a few days after the BJP government banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI-J&K) under the same Sections of the UAPA.
The Sections invoked in the ban provide impunity to the Union Government to arbitrarily declare any association as unlawful by merely notifying it in the Official Gazette.
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