The Jammu and Kashmir administration Wednesday withdrew security of 18 separatists and 155 political persons, including PDP leader Wahid Parra and IAS officer Shah Faesal, officials said.
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.
Among the leaders whose security has been downgraded and withdrawn are SAS Geelani, Aga Syed Mosvi, Maulvi Abbas Ansari, Yaseen Malik, Saleem Geelani, Shahid ul Islam, Zaffar Akbar Bhat, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza, Farooq Ahmed Kichloo, Masroor Abbas Ansari, Aga Syed Abul Hussain, Abdul Gani Shah and Mohd Musadiq Bhat.
This is in addition to the four separatists whose security was withdrawn on Sunday, 17 February.
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who did not require the security provided to them based on their threat assessment and their activities, was also withdrawn.
This includes Shah Faesal, the 2010 IAS topper from Jammu and Kashmir who recently resigned from bureaucracy, and PDP leader Wahid Parra, the officials said.
Through this, over 1,000 police personnel and over 100 vehicles are freed to do regular police work, they said.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)