India seizes house of octogenarian Kashmiri leader

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir

India’s income tax department on Monday seized a house of Kashmiri octogenarian leader Syed Ali Geelani in the capital New Delhi for alleged tax evasion.

This came after India’s Enforcement Directorate seized the property of incarcerated Kashmiri leader Shabir Shah.

According to a written order issued by the Tax Department, the residence of Syed Ali Geelani in Indian capital New Delhi was sealed for allegedly “failing” to pay the sum of 36.2 million Indian rupees ($523,000) for assessment years 1996-97 to 2001-02’.

Last month, the Enforcement Directorate had levied a penalty of 1.44 million Indian rupees ($20,800) on Geelani in a 17-year-old case of illegal possession of $10,000 in alleged contravention of the foreign exchange law.

Since the Pulwama bombing in Kashmir that killed at least 40 paramilitary personnel, the Indian government has further intensified its crackdown on the pro-independence groups and activists in the region.

Last month, the Indian government banned the socio-political and religious organization Jamaat e Islami, arresting over 300 of its activists. Last week, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front was banned. Most of the top pro-independence activists are languishing in Indian prisons or under house arrest.

Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.

Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- two of them over Kashmir.

Also, in Siachen glacier in northern Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani troops have fought intermittently since 1984. A cease-fire came into effect in 2003.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.