NIA chargesheets six Hurriyat leaders in 1996 Srinagar violence case

Late Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the pro-Pakistan separatist, is among the six Hurriyat Conference leaders charge-sheeted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with a 1996 case involving mob violence and indiscriminate firing on police personnel in Srinagar.

The charge sheet, filed on Friday before the NIA Special Court, Jammu, named Kashmiri separatist leaders Shabir Ahmad Shah, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Abdul Ganie Lone, Mohammad Yaqoob Wakeel (alias Mohammad Yaqoob Vakil), Javid Ahmad Mir and Shakeel Ahmad Bakshi.
The charges against Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Abdul Gani Lone and Mohd Yaqoob Wakeel stand abated because they passed away during the proceedings. However, the charge sheet clearly established their role in the criminal conspiracy and the common object of the unlawful assembly, along with supporting evidence.

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Shabir Ahmad Shah is currently lodged in Tihar Jail on terror charges.
The NIA, during investigation, had ascertained that all six accused had led an unlawful assembly and instigated large-scale violence against police personnel during a funeral procession of slain terrorist Hilal Ahmad Beigh at Naaz Crossing, Srinagar, on July 17, 1996.

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

As per NIA’s findings in the case, the charge-sheeted Hurriyat leaders had actively incited the violence, raising anti-India, pro-Pakistan and secessionist slogans.
They delivered inflammatory speeches advocating armed struggle, NIA 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.

An FIR was initially registered in the case at Police Station Shergarhi, 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, Government of India.