NIA charge sheets six Hurriyat leaders in 1996 Srinagar mob violence case

The National Investigation Agency filed charge sheets against six Hurriyat Conference leaders, including Shabir Ahmad Shah, in a 1996 Srinagar mob violence case. The agency alleged they conspired to incite violence during a funeral procession that injured police personnel

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed charge sheets against six separatist leaders of the Hurriyat Conference, including Shabir Ahmad Shah, in connection with a 1996 case of mob violence and firing on police personnel in Srinagar. Besides Shah, the charge sheet filed before the NIA Special Court, Jammu, has named Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Abdul Ganie Lone, Mohd Yaqoob Wakeel alias Mohd Yaqoob Vakil, Javid Ahmad Mir and Shakeel Ahmad Bakshi, a statement issued by the probe agency said.

All six have been charged with criminal conspiracy, attempt to murder, rioting and assault on public servants, it said. The charges against Geelani, Lone and Wakeel stand abated as they passed away during the pendency of the proceedings.

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However, the charge sheet clearly established their roles in the criminal conspiracy and the common object of unlawful assembly, along with supporting evidence, the anti-terror agency claimed.

The NIA, during investigation, ascertained that all six accused had led an unlawful assembly and instigated large-scale violence against police personnel during the funeral procession of slain terrorist Hilal Ahmad Beigh in Srinagar on July 17, 1996.

Armed terrorists blended with the procession, which was jointly led by the accused Hurriyat leaders, and fired indiscriminately at police personnel during the violence, in which several police officials were injured. Government vehicles were also extensively damaged in heavy stone pelting.

As per NIA’s findings in the case, the accused Hurriyat leaders had actively incited the violence, raising anti-India, pro-Pakistan and secessionist slogans.

They delivered inflammatory speeches advocating armed struggle, NIA allegedly further found. Meticulous investigation by the anti-terror agency clearly established that the mob violence was part of a larger, pre-planned criminal conspiracy of the Hurriyat leadership to use the funeral procession as a platform for propagating separatist ideology, mobilising public support against the Government of India, provoking public disorder, and inciting violence against law enforcement agencies, while demonstrating the strength of the Hurriyat in Jammu & Kashmir, the statement said.

An FIR was initially registered in the case at the Shergarhi police station in Srinagar on the day of the violence. The NIA took over the case in April 2026 on the directives of the Ministry of Home Affairs.