J& K administration shuts down Jamat- affiliate Trust schools

Srinagar: The J& K administration asked Falah-e-Aam Trust (FAT) to shut down its schools in the Union Territory.

More than 11,000 students of FAT, an affiliate of banned Jamat-e-Islami organization, have been asked to take admission in government schools, according to The Indian Express.

However, authorities were silent on the future of both teachers and staff working these schools.

Alongside, the district authorities were directed to seal all the instructions under FAT within 15 days.

The UT administration cited a 1990 ban order of Falah-e-Aam Trust and asked the outfit not to take fresh admission and further registration.

The district and zonal-level education officers have been ordered to publicise that FAT school are not recognised by the government.

The government cited the ban of the Trust in 1990 under Section 3 of the Jammu and Kashmir Criminal Law Amendment Act-1983.

As per the Act, according to the report, the ban remains in force only for two years only.

As for the Central Act or Unlawful Activities Act-1967 the ban remains in force for a period of five years only, according to the report.

Falah-e-Aam Trust, set up by Jamat-e-Islami Kashmir in 1972, used to run over 300 schools in Kashmir and parts of Jammu.

Sources told The Indian Express that less than two dozen school are now under the direct control of the trust.

It is not clear from the order if the schools directly run by the Trust are barred or all schools that once belonged to the Trust.

When Jamat-e-Islami Kashmir was banned in February 2019, Trust schools received notices to shut down which the authorities quickly withdrew saying it was misinterpretation by some officers.

Kashmir Jama'at-e'Islami is an organisation, functioning as independent of the Indian Jama'at-e-Islami and pursues its own policies and programmes unrelated to the latter.