CIK seeks sanction to prosecute Hurriyat leader, 8 others in Pakistan MBBS seat ‘sale’ case

J&K Police has moved the home department for acquiring sanction for prosecuting nine people including a separatist leader and an advocate from south Kashmir in the case involving “selling” of MBBS seats in Pakistan to Kashmiri students and using the money to fund militancy.

Registered by Counter Intelligence Kashmir (CIK in July last year, the case has so far seen arrest of four persons even as two more accused, according to officials, are currently in Pakistan.

Last year the CIK registered the case after receiving information through “reliable sources” that several unscrupulous persons, including some Hurriyat leaders, were hand in glove with some educational consultancies and were “selling” Pakistan-based MBBS seats and seats in other professional courses in many colleges and universities.

Now, the CIK, after a thorough investigation, has moved the Jammu and Kashmir home department and sought sanction for prosecution against the nine people under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), the reports say.

According to the officials, more evidence has surfaced during the probe in which it was also found that the money gathered from admissions had been passed on to some terror groups as well as secessionist groups for promoting enmity and waging war against the country.

Significantly, the case could come in handy in carrying out with the provisions of banning hardline Hurriyat Conference as the chief of one of its constituents — Muhammad Akbar Bhat alias Zaffar Bhat of the Salvation Front — is among the nine against whom the sanction has been sought under the stringent UAPA.

Some of the witnesses examined have indicated that many families approached Hurriyat leaders to avail the “programme”, a brainchild of Pakistan’s external snooping agency ISI, aimed at incentivising terrorism by compensating the family of killed terrorists by way of providing free of cost MBBS and engineering seats, the officials said.

However, there have been instances where such families were disappointed as monetary consideration was given precedence over the intended objective of the “programme” run by the ISI, they said.

The officials said that cost of seats ranged between Rs 10 to Rs 12 lakhs and in “some cases, the price was brought down on ‘sifarish’ (recommendation) of senior Hurriyat leaders, and depending upon the political heft of these secessionist leader, who intervened, concessions were extended to the aspiring student and his family”.