In wake of the recent passing away of Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani Masrat Alam Bhat has been appointed Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference.
In a 2010 interview with journalist Dilnaz Boga, Alam said infamously been quoted as saying that he has been “a stone thrower since my childhood because stones were the only source of resistance before 1990”.
He has spent half of his life in ‘preventative detention’ and before the announcement of declaring him as the Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Bhat was serving as General Secretary of APHC.
Alam, who was charge-sheeted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in October 2019, is at present lodged in the Tihar Jail. So who is Masrat Alam and what is his background, lets take a look.
Early Years
Alam was born in old-city Srinagar’s Zaindar Mohalla in July 1971. Alam went to Biscoe, the Valley’s leading missionary school, and went on to become a graduate.
Alam’s former classmates told The Week that he was an early rebel. “In his first successful agitation, he led a group of boys who demanded permission for Friday prayers,” one of his classmates told the magazine. “The school authorities had to budge.”
During the period of militancy in the valley, Masrat Alam was drawn to the armed rebellion against Indian state.
A former student leader, Bhat, has served several years in jail at different intervals since the onset of militancy in 1990.
First Arrest and Career as a separatist
He was first arrested by the Border Security Force in October 1990 on charges of serving as a lieutenant to the then-prominent militant, Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat. He won a protracted legal battle in 1997 and began working at a cloth store owned by his grandfather, graduating the next year.
Alam’s political career as a separatist started in 1996. He was a top commander of the pro-Pakistan militant outfit Hezbollah, and after his arrest and release, joined the separatist Muslim League, as per Indian Express.
After joining the Muslim League, he rapidly became popular and rose through the ranks to become the party chief.
Bhat found space under hardline Islamist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani‘s wing after the Hurriyat Conference split in 2003.
Role in unrest of 2008 and 2010.
During the unrest of 2008 and 2010, many stone-pelting incidents were recorded in the valley. In both incidents Masarat Alam Bhat was identified by government agencies as the key perpetrator. It subsided with his arrest and multiple detentions over the years.
Alam became the “most wanted” separatist in 2010, when the coalition of the National Conference and Congress was in power. He got bail when the PDP-BJP government was in power.
He drew further ire of the Indian regime when he supported 2008 Mumbai Attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed. Alam, who responded by raising a series of anti-India and pro-Pakistan slogans, including those favouring militants like Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin (who is from Jammu and Kashmir and now in Pakistan administered), Azad Kashmir and LeT chief Hafiz Sayeed. “Hafiz Sayeed ka kya paigaam (What is Hafiz Sayeed’s message),” Alam shouted. “Kashmir banega Pakistan (Kashmir will become Pakistan).
After Kashmir flood disaster, Masarat created a huge controversy by saying that Kashmir valley does not need Indian forces to rescue people in case of natural disasters
Family
Alam’s wife, Zahida, has been living with her parents since Alam’s arrests.
Her elder brother, Muhammed Salim, was part of the Kashmir militancy and was killed by security forces in 1996. Zahida told HuffPost India “I never had to think twice before consenting to this marriage. I have always been proud of him. We all are.”
Further Arrests
He was arrested on 17 April 2015 by Kashmir police in Srinagar for raising Pakistan flag and shouting anti-India slogan. Geelani has called for shutdown call for his arrest in Jammu and Kashmir on 18 April.
In the same year Alam was placed under Public Safety Act by Indian Government. The Jammu and Kashmir government shifted Alam out of the valley to a jail in Jammu.
On 1 September 2015, he was detained again in jail premises after authorities released him following the Jammu and Kashmir High Court‘s order for releasing him. After Jammu jail authorities freed Masarat Alam following the court orders, a police party however, rearrested him and took him away to some unknown destination.
The Jammu and Kashmir High Court quashed the detention of hardline separatist leader Masrat Alam under the Public Safety Act (PSA). Justice Hasnain Masoodi announced in open court that he has quashed the detention order issued by state government under the PSA against Masrat Alam and the detailed order would follow.
Ashiq Bukhari, the senior superintendent of police who led the operation that resulted in Masarat’s arrest post the 2010 stone-pelting incident, said it took the police months of hard work to track him down. Now retired, he said his team got Rs 10 lakh the police had put on Masarat’s head. “Omar (Abdullah) gave us an extra Rs 15 lakh from his own pocket,” he told The Week. Bukhari was Srinagar police chief in 2010.
Now a Leader.
He got arrested during coalition of the National Conference and Congress in power and although he got bail when PDP-BJP nexus was in power, for Alam, there is no difference in the two alliances’ agendas. “They want to defeat the nation of Kashmir,” he told Scroll.in.
His separatist politics have been very clearly stated from the beginning, he has never minced his words. In an interview with Indian Express he had said that “Kashmir is under occupation, and there will be no debate or discussion on that.”
Now that he has been elected as chairman of APHC, a new chapter in his life begins as well as a new era for Hurriyat. Whether they remain the force they once were remains to be seen.
(Inputs from news agenices).