The 1996 Naaz Crossing violence returns to focus as Srinagar Police arrest a prime instigator after decades
In a major breakthrough in a case lingering for nearly three decades, Srinagar Police on Monday arrested separatist leader Shakeel Ahmad Bakshi after he surrendered before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court. The development marks a significant step in reviving accountability for the violent separatist mobilisation that defined Kashmir’s unrest in the 1990s.
According to officials, Bakshi’s arrest is linked to FIR No. 192/1996—filed after a mob-led procession in July 1996 turned violent at Naaz Crossing in Srinagar. The crowd, carrying the body of slain terrorist Hilal Ahmad Beigh, attacked security forces with stones, raised anti-India slogans, and even opened fire. While no casualties were reported, the incident stands as one of the era’s most volatile anti-national flare-ups.
The case, registered under the erstwhile Indian Penal Code, UAPA and the Arms Act, named several separatist figures—including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Bakshi, Mohammad Yaqoob Wakeel, Javid Ahmad Mir, Abdul Gani Lone, Shabir Shah and Nayeem Ahmad Khan—for instigating the mob and fuelling street violence against the Indian state. Geelani, Lone and Wakeel have since died, while Shabir Shah and Nayeem Khan remain lodged in Tihar Jail in separate NIA cases.
Officials say Bakshi’s arrest breathes new life into a long-pending investigation and underscores the Modi government’s determination to bring closure to cases that shaped the Valley’s troubled past and to ensure that decades-old acts of lawlessness do not escape justice.
Bakshi, the chief of the Islamic Students League (ISL), has for years been involved in student radicalisation, street protests, and repeated confrontations with law enforcement.
He was arrested in 2011 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in connection with a 2009 case and has faced multiple detentions for offences stretching back to the militancy-ridden 1990s. In 2019, he survived an assassination attempt when unidentified gunmen targeted his Bemina residence.
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