The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday banned the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP), led by jailed separatist leader Shabir Shah, for five years, invoking the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against the organisation and stating that it was engaged in “anti-India” activities. The JKDFP is the fourth separatist political outfit in the Valley that the Centre has banned since 2018. The Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DeM), a women's separatist organisation, was declared a "terrorist organisation" under Section 35 of the UAPA in 2018. In February the following year, the Jamaat-e-Islami (Jammu and Kashmir) and the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) were banned under the UAPA's Section 3 dealing with "unlawful association”. Long innings in separatist politics Shabir Shah launched his political innings at an early age. A resident of south Kashmir's Anantnag, Shah’s first arrest was at the age of 14 for participating in a pro-separatist protest. In 1974, when he was 21, Shah joined the Jammu and Kashmir People’s League — an organisation that was the first to talk of separatism in Jammu and Kashmir. Shah went on to form the JKDFP in 1998 after parting ways with the Jammu and Kashmir People's League. But the onset of militancy in J&K would bring Shah to the centrestage of separatist politics. In the 1987 J&K Assembly elections, Shah's elder brother Saeed Ahmad Shah, contesting from Anantnag, was one of the four winning candidates of the Muslim United Front (MUF) — a grouping of several social, religious and political parties, which had joined hands to oppose the National Conference-Congress combine. The elections, widely seen as rigged, sowed the seeds of a civilian and militant movement against what was perceived as New Delhi’s rule in Kashmir. Shah was arrested in 1989 — he had been underground a year prior to it — which triggered protests across the state. Following his release, Shah became a key figure in the formation of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), an amalgam of separatist political outfits, which sought a political platform that would complement the militant movement and seek a resolution of the Kashmir issue. Shah, who was an advocate of dialogue for the resolution of the Kashmir issue, soon had differences with other members of the Hurriyat. In 1996, when the Hurriyat was not ready for a conversation with New Delhi, Shah had said that “doors were open for everyone who can help resolve the Kashmir problem. He also went on to meet V P Singh and American Ambassador Frank Wisner in 1996. He was expelled from the Hurriyat soon afterwards. In 2001, Shah was the only separatist leader to meet K C Pant — the Centre's first interlocutor on Kashmir. This was also against the stance of the Hurriyat, which said they would prefer meeting then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee directly. Seven years later, Shah joined the Hurriyat again, which was being led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. In 2014, he switched sides and went on to join the rival grouping led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, one of the biggest leaders of the separatist movement. In 2017, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Shah from his Srinagar residence in an alleged terror funding case and later handed him over to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged money laundering case. He is currently lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail. Shah was initially provided security following his arrest as the government perceived a threat to his life for his pro-dialogue stance over the Kashmir issue. However, this was withdrawn in 2019 after the Pulwama incident. Currently, the JKDFP has barely any presence in the Valley, and has just a handful of workers.
