Jammu and Kashmir’s police chief R.S. Swain had an unlikely visitor at his Public Darbar or public outreach programme last month — Ruwa Shah, the outspoken grand-daughter of late Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

The police have surprisingly kept the meeting under wraps, notwithstanding its reputation to pounce on every opportunity to vilify the separatist camp.

A video of the Public Darbar, which took place in Baramulla on February 17, shows Ruwa, a former journalist, accompanied reportedly by her husband, turning up to air her grievance before the police chief.

The Police Public Darbar is an initiative of Swain, who became DGP in October last year, where residents air their grievances before him.

Swain is known for his strong anti-militancy stand and in November last year had vowed to act against writers “hiding behind freedom of speech and expression” but inciting “youth to pick up arms”, seen as a warning to journalists.

Police sources said Ruwa complained that her passport was impounded by the security agencies, which had prevented her from travelling abroad for professional reasons.

Ruwa’s father, and Geelani’s son in law, was Altaf Shah, who died while in custody at Tihar Jail in 2022 after losing a brief battle with cancer.

She worked in some TV networks in Turkey for years but returned home due to the ailment of her jailed father, after which her passport was impounded. She is known for her pro-Azaadi stand.

The video shows Swain giving her a patient hearing and apparently marking her application for action.

A police statement about the Darbar on February 17 said some 400 people had turned up at the programme but it makes no mention of the special visitor.

The statement quoted Swain as saying that his force was taking strict action against those responsible for pushing the youth “towards terrorism and drugs.”

The event was covered by a government-friendly social media channel, known for its anti-militancy coverage, but that too blacked out the news about Ruwa’s interaction with the police chief.

The meeting apparently provides context to last week’s nearly simultaneous “public notices” by Ruwa and Sama Shabir, daughter of jailed separatist leader Shabir Shah, in local newspapers where they distanced themselves from the separatist ideology of their fathers.

Both pledged their loyalty to the “sovereignty of India”.

Ruwa’s notice said she was “a loyal citizen of India” and was “not affiliated with any organisation or association” which has an agenda against the Union of India and that she owed “allegiance to the Constitution of my country (India)”.

“Any use of my name for this organisation (Hurriyat) shall be liable to legal action from my side,” Ruwa’s notice reads.

Her brother Anees ul Islam was terminated from government services on accusations of being a “threat to the state”.

Sama’s announcement had almost similar content. While Sama distanced herself from Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), which is headed by her jailed father, Ruwa distanced herself from the Hurriyat Conference, whose hardline faction was headed by Geelani, who was known for his pro-militancy stand.