SRINAGAR, July 28: The state government had a security index – a blacklist prepared by the state police’s intelligence wing – of thousands of Kashmiri people who were not to be issued passports, but the same is now being cleared gradually.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday, for the first time, conceded that 6000 cases which were placed on the blacklist have been cleared by the criminal investigation department (CID) for passports since January 1, 2012, a newspaper has reported.
“We have cleared 51000 passport cases in 2010, 60000 in 2011-12 and 50000 this year so far. We have also cleared 6000 cases this year which were placed in blacklist. Passport clearance was also given to 2700 Haj pilgrims,” Abdullah was quoted by the Mail Today as saying.
Thousands of people have been denied a passport after their names perhaps figured in the blacklist prepared by intelligence agencies or what they called a “security index”.
The index had mostly those who had links with militants or separatists or so did their kin. Also those people who were affiliated with religious organisations like the Jamaat-e-Islami have been named in the list.
“There are no parameters in it. Even a boy who was arrested for one day at the age of nine is denied a passport,” the Mail Today reported quoting a police official.
In 2007, some 60,000 families across the Valley figured in the list.
Also Read: Passport denied: Trouble tale of former militants and kin
To clear the index, Abdullah said, the state government was considering the possibility of bringing passport clearance by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) within the purview of Public Service Guarantee Act to make delivery of this service time bound.
Mir Shafqat Hussain, a lawyer in Jammu and Kashmir High Court, said a number of people approached the high court for securing passports and despite directions from the court the police refused to give them clearance.
A veterinarian, Khursheed Ahmad was invited by the United Nations for a programme which he could not attend for want of a passport.
“He was denied clearance by the CID on the ground that his brother was a militant. The fact is his brother surrendered long back and is now a government servant. We approached the high court which ordered that he should be given a passport. But despite court’s directions he was not given passport,” Hussain said.
The lawyer now plans to file a contempt petition before the court.
