The Jammu and Kashmir School Education Department ordered the cessation of academic activities in schools run by the banned Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI). In fact, more than 300 educational institutions run by Falah-e-Aam (FAT), an affiliate of this group, have already been stopped from functioning in the state, the officials of the department said on Tuesday, June 14.
The order was issued by School Education Secretary BK Singh on Monday, June 13. He also asked chief education officers of various districts to seal the institutions within 15 days in consultation with the district administration. He further directed the chief and zonal education officers to widely publicise these unrecognised institutions, as per a PTI report. All the students studying in these banned institutions shall have to admit themselves to the nearby government schools for the current academic session, according to the order, and chief education officers, principals and zonal education officers would facilitate the admission of these students. New admissions shall be banned in these FAT institutions.
The order was issued after investigations were conducted by the State Investigation Agency (SIA) of Jammu and Kashmir Police, which alleged gross illegalities, outright fraud and mass-scale encroachment of government lands by FAT. The organisation, functioning under the JeI, is proscribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs under the provisions of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
The officials of the Education Department have alleged that almost all FAT schools have been found to be existing on illegally acquired government and community lands wherein lands were occupied by coercion at gunpoint, as well as by collusion with revenue officials who made wrong entities in revenue documents by committing fraud and forgery. They have also alleged that JeI mostly draws its sustenance from the vast network of FAT schools, seminaries, orphanages, pulpits of mosques and other charities. Such institutions played a destructive role in the large-scale unrests of 2008, 2010 and 2016, bringing huge miseries to common people and forcing them to shut down by threat, intimidation and street violence, they said.
"The SIA has already registered FIR in such matter and the agency is expanding the ambit of these investigations to unearth all such frauds, unauthorised entities and forgeries that have been committed in the last 30 years at the behest of terrorists and for other considerations which include monetary gratifications," the officials informed, as reported by PTI.
