Govt bans FAT schools in J&K after SIA finds them responsible for ‘destructive roles’
Mudasir Yaqoob
Srinagar, June 14: J&K Government Tuesday decided to ban the operation of schools run by Falah-e-Aam Trust (FAT) — an affiliate of banned Jamaat-e-Islami.
The development came after the State Investigation Agency (SIA) in its investigations found gross illegalities, outright frauds, mass scale encroachment of government lands by FAT, a top official told ANN News.
A top official in government also confirmed to ANN News that School Education Department on Tuesday also ordered cessation of academic activities in FAT affiliated schools.
The FAT, the officials said, is an affiliate of radical body Jamat-e-Islami (JeI) which is proscribed by Ministry of Home Affairs under the provisions of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
“JeI mostly draws its sustenance from the vast network of FAT schools, seminaries, orphanages, pulpits of mosques and other charities,” they said.
SIA during investigation found that these institutions played a destructive role in large scale unrests of 2008, 2010 and 2016 in Kashmir “bringing huge miseries to common people and forcing them for shutdowns by threat, intimidation and street violence.”
During investigation, as per officials, almost FAT schools have been found to be existing on illegally acquired government and community lands.
“And these encroached were occupied by coercion, at gunpoint as well as colluding with revenue officials who made wrong entities in revenue documents by committing fraud and forgery,” said an official privy to the SIA investigation.
Officials said that SIA has already registered a case in matter and is expanding the ambit of probe to unearth all such frauds, unauthorized entities and forgeries committed in last 30 years at the behest of terrorists and for other considerations which include monetary gratifications.
