Massarat refers to Omar, Krishna to justify ‘freedom struggle’

He stayed around his home, moved on bike, uploaded FaceBook for 4 months

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Oct 19: Hurriyat (G) General Secretary, Massarat Alam Bhat, who carried the tag of Kashmir’s most wanted separatist activist as also a huge cash reward on his head, was “underground” in Police records until yesterday. Now in Police custody, Alam has revealed that for all the last four months he had stayed in his Zainadar Mohalla locality, besides houses of his relatives, used a motorcycle to hide his identification on the streets and uploaded incendiary data and videos on FaceBook through a Tata Indicom data card without any fear of a Police raid.

Highly placed authoritative sources, associated with the interrogation of the detained Vice Chairman of Muslim League and Hurriyat (G) functionary, revealed to Early Times that Massarat Alam remained neither defensive nor apologetic during his sustained questioning.

In order to justify his association with the Kashmir “freedom struggle”, Alam even referred to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s recent controversial statement over Jammu & Kashmir state’s accession to India. Sources said that the detained separatist activist pointed out how none other than India’s Minister of External Affairs, S M Krishna, as well as the union Home Minister, P Chidambaram, had supported Omar. This, according to Alam, was “the most emphatic vindication of the stand of Hurriyat Conference” that has been calling the state’s accession to India as “temporary” and seeking a final settlement through a Plebiscite under 60-year-old UN resolutions or tripartite talks between New Delhi, Islamabad and “real representatives of the Kashmiri people”.

Police and intelligence agencies are yet to start formal interrogation of the detained separatist activist even as First Additional Munsiff of Srinagar today remanded Alam to Police custody for five days. A large number of the members of High Court Bar Association waited for several hours until Massarat Alam was produced before the judicial magistrate at 1700 hours this evening. The judge ordered that necessary medical treatment be provided to the detainee, his family members and counsels be allowed to see him in custody and grounds of detention be made available to the concerned. Thereafter, SDPO Nehru Park straightway whisked away Alam to headquarters of SOG Srinagar that stands designated as an additional lock-up of Police Station Sadar since 1994.

According to the informed sources, Massarat Alam was “underground” in Police records since June 24^th this year. Now in Police custody, he has revealed that for most of these days, he had conveniently put up at residences of his neighbours, friends and relatives in his Zaindar Mohalla locality. During this period, he stood less than 200 yards away from the offices of Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir and Deputy Commissioner of Srinagar. He, however, claimed that he had never slept at his own house in the last four months.

Sources said that Alam had also stayed at the houses of his friends and relatives at Chinkral Mohalla Habbakadal, Qarfalli Mohalla, Pandan Nowhatta, Umar Colony Soura, Khanyar and Telbal. Finally, one of meticulously informed sources of IGP Kashmir, S M Sahai, helped Police by revealing that Alam had been mostly staying with his maternal relatives. He was picked up from the house of maternal uncle, Aftab Ahmed, in Telbal at 1900 hours on October 18^th. Raids are currently underway to arrest some of Alam’s associates who had prominently mobilized stone pelting groups with attacks on official and civil vehicular traffic.

Alam revealed during questioning that he had neither used any mobile phones nor moved in uptown Srinagar for fear of his identification and arrest in the last four months. He had created a fake account on FaceBook and had several times uploaded incendiary videos and posts though a Photon data card issued by TataIndicom.

The long-bearded fugitive has revealed that he had invariably moved on a motorcycle with a crash helmet to cover his identity. According to his preliminary disclosures, for a few days he had moved to north-east of the Valley and stayed at Sumbal, Hajjan and Bandipore.

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