Srinagar, February 20: Days after Pulwama terror attack, Jammu and Kashmir administration on Wednesday withdrew security of 18 separatist leaders including Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Yasin Malik. The authorities also revoked security of 155 politicians of Jammu and Kashmir. The move comes after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, during his visit to the Kashmir valley on February 15, said that security provided to those who received money from Pakistan would be reviewed.

The security review meeting, which was held here under the chairmanship of state chief secretary BVR Subrahmanyam, took the decision as it was felt that providing security to these separatist leaders is a "wastage" of scarce state resources which could be better utilised elsewhere. The security of 155 political persons and activists, who did not require the security provided to them based on their threat assessment and their activities, was also withdrawn. Three Reasons Why Pakistan's Demand of ‘Actionable Intelligence’ on Pulwama Attack is Laughable.

This includes Shah Faesal, the 2010 IAS topper from Jammu and Kashmir who recently resigned from bureaucracy, and PDP leader Wahid Parra, the officials told news agency PTI. Over 1,000 police personnel and over 100 vehicles will now be free to do regular police work. Three days after the February 14 attack, the state administration withdrew the security cover provided to five separatist leaders, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

Others who lost security cover were professor Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Lone, Hashim Qureshi and Shabir Ahmad Shah. Earlier, it was reported that separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani and Muhammad Yaseen Malik were not provided with any security cover by the state government.

The Hurriyat Conference, however, last week said they had never sought security cover. "The government had decided on its own to provide security to separatist leaders which was never demanded in the first place," the Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said in a statement. "Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, in fact, said many times during his Friday sermons that he wanted withdrawal of the security cover. The decision to withdraw security will neither change the stand of separatist leaders nor affect the situation on the ground," the statement added. Imran Khan Responds to Pulwama Attack, Says ‘Pakistan Will Retaliate If India Wages War’.

40 CRPF personnel were killed when their convoy was targeted on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway on February 14. The convoy comprised 78 buses in which around 2500 personnel were travelling from Jammu to Srinagar. Soon after, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which is based in Pakistan and backed by the Pakistani administration, claimed responsibility for the attack.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 20, 2019 10:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).