Masarat Alam
| Masarat Alam Bhat مسّرَت عالم بٹ |
|
|---|---|
| Born |
July 1971 Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India |
| Residence | Zainadar Mohalla, Srinagar |
| Alma mater |
Kashmir University Sri Pratap College |
| Political party | Tehreek-e-Hurriyat |
| Website | www |
July 1971
Masarat Alam Bhat (Urdu, مسّرَت عالم بٹ) is a Kashmiri separatist leader currently General Secretary of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani. He is also the Chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Muslim League. He played a significant role in the 2010 Kashmir stone pelting rallies which broke out against the Machil encounter carried out by the Indian army in Kashmir. To stop such incidences Masrat Alam has been detained by the Government numerous times later. Government has booked Masrat Alam in 27 criminal cases but in most of these he has either been exonerated or bailed out by the courts and was released after Mufti Sayeed took over as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on 1 March 2015. He was detained under the Jammu & Kashmir's Public Safety Act and was in March 2015 released which caused a major political controversy and dominated Indian Parliament Proceedings. Amid speculations over his release Masrat Aalam said that no deal was made between him and the Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, saying "I spent more than four years in prison and during all these years I challenged the grounds of my 'illegal' detention". He has been Jailed for 17 years and has around 27 cases against him.
Indian authorities criticizes Masarat for being "New poster boy of ISI in Kashmir valley". Indian authorities claim that Pakistan is using Kashmiri leaders like Masarat Alam to erupt 2010-style confrontations between the youth and the Indian security forces which could lead to violence, so as to seek interest of the United States and European Union for mediation in Kashmir issue.
Alam was born in old-city Srinagar's Zaindar Mohalla in July 1971, Bhat studied in Srinagar's élite Cecil Earle Tyndale-Biscoe School before joining the Sri Pratap College. Like many youths of his generation, he was drawn to the jihadist movement that began in 1989. He was first arrested by the Border Security Force in October 1990 on charges of serving as a lieutenant to the then-prominent jihadist, 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. From 1999, Bhat became increasingly active in the All Parties Hurriyat Conference(APHC) that cost him multiple stints in prison. He represented the Muslim League in APHC. Bhat found space under hardline Islamist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's wing after the Hurriyat Conference split in 2003.
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