Till 2008, Masarat Alam Bhat, chief of the separatist Muslim League Jammu and Kashmir, lived in the shadows like many other second-rung separatist leaders. He was catapulted into the limelight in 2008-09 when armed insurgency in Kashmir transitioned into agitational politics.
He hit headlines again last week when his party was banned under provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act by the Centre for “supporting terrorist activities and inciting people to establish Islamic rule in J&K”.
Unlike other top separatist leaders such as JKLF chief Yasin Malik, Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who built themselves on a volatile past and emerged gradually on the political scene in Kashmir, 52-year-old Bhat’s rise to steer the streets was quick. As Kashmir fell into chaos due to a row over land granted to the Amarnath shrine in 2008, Bhat was believed to be the force behind the massive protests that shook the valley.
He popularised pro-azadi (freedom) songs, including ‘Aeyi Aeyi Azadi’ (Freedom is about to come), promoted anti-India graffiti and set off mass protests. He issued calendars, with timing and dates on when to shut down and when to shop essentials during prolonged street agitations. Security forces had to use force to quell these street protests, resulting in the death of around 200 civilians between 2008 and 2010.
In one of the dossiers prepared by the District Magistrate, Kupwara, Bhat was portrayed as a secessionist who “would devise the strategy to disrupt public tranquillity and to create an atmosphere of chaos, which suits their ideology”. “Kashmir Valley in general and Srinagar in particular have witnessed that such strikes disrupt supply of essential commodities, force closure of essential public service departments, including medical departments, and stop business activities. Educational institutions got paralysed by programmes framed and Alam was one of the main organisers. He created circumstances which led to serious law and order problems in the Valley,” the dossier reads.
Bhat, who seeks accession of J&K with Pakistan invoking Islam, took over the reins of the hardline Hurriyat while he was in jail, after the death of Syed Ali Shah Geelani in 2021.
Born in a family of rich cloth merchants in 1971 in Srinagar’s Zaindar Mohalla, Bhat studied in Kashmir’s prominent Christian missionary school, the Tyndale Biscoe, named after a British missionary and educator who served in Kashmir in the early 20th century.
First arrest
He was arrested for the first time on October 2, 1990 under the Public Safety Act (PSA), a law that deals with preventive detention, when he was 19 years old. Bhat had joined the Islamic Students League, which wanted to replicate the 1979 Iranian revolution in Kashmir. Joining the militant outfit, Hizbullah, for three months, he was arrested again. After his release, he floated the Muslim League.
In 2010, Bhat faced a case of sedition for waging war against the state over a video message in which he urged security forces to leave Kashmir. His release on March 1, 2015 by then J&K Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed rocked the newly formed coalition government of the Peoples Democratic Party and the BJP in J&K.
Mufti backed Bhat’s release as a confidence-building measure for separatists to engage them in a dialogue over the Kashmir issue. Bhat’s supporters were seen unfurling the Pakistan flag and raising pro-Pakistan slogans during a rally headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Forty days after his release, Bhat was re-arrested as the BJP witnessed a backlash. Bhat, who has been in and out of jail frequently, faced at least 49 cases and was booked under the PSA every time the court granted him relief. According to his lawyers, he faced a record number of detentions under the PSA, for 39 times, since 1990. He has spent over 22 years in jail.
Banning of the Muslim League Jammu-Kashmir and the Jamaat-e-Islami in Kashmir has brought curtains down on key pro-Pakistan political parties active in Kashmir since 1990.
