Three leaders of the recently banned Jamaat-e-Islami were arrested and nearly a dozen assets belonging to the organisation’s members sealed on Saturday across six districts in Jammu, police said on Sunday.

Earlier, senior Jamaat leaders were arrested along with over 150 activists in the Kashmir Valley, where the group has a large presence.

Saturday’s raids on the offices and homes of Jamaat leaders and activists were conducted in Kishtwar, Doda, Ramban, Poonch, Rajouri and Jammu districts, and a large volume of documents was seized, a police officer said.

He said at least six bank accounts linked to the group had been identified and the banks directed to freeze them immediately.

The Centre had on Thursday banned the Jamaat for five years on the ground that it was “in close touch” with militant outfits and was expected to “escalate the secessionist movement” in the state.

The Union home ministry issued the notification banning the group under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As a cadre-based socio-political and religious group, the Jamaat runs hundreds of schools across the state and favours Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan. It helped float the Hizbul Mujahideen.

All schools run by the organisation in the six Jammu districts were searched during Saturday’s raids, the officer who spoke to PTI said, adding that these haven’t been sealed but are being kept under surveillance.

Omar questions ‘ban’

National Conference leader and former chief minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday said Jamaat-run schools and mosques were being sealed in the Valley and appealed to the government to “urgently review” this decision.

But the state government said the schools, mosques and orphanages run by the Jamaat had so far been “kept outside the ambit of seizures and sealing”.

Omar, whose party has always been ideologically opposed to the Jamaat, said the ban on the outfit “is having a major social impact” in Kashmir.