What the man on the streets in Srinagar has long suspected is finally being proved - that the top leadership of the Hurriyat Conference is totally corrupt and has amassed fortunes while the ordinary Kashmiri, especially the idealistic youth, have had to die.

What is the Hurriyat? Does it stand for Kashmir?
The Hurriyat claims to speak for all the people of Jammu & Kashmir but is actually a collection of opportunistic leaders who have hijacked the original freedom agenda. Today, the Hurriyat stands for Pakistan and not Jammu & Kashmir. The original organisation fighting for the freedom of Jammu & Kashmir was the JKLF (Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front), an organisation inspired by the sacrifices of heroes like Maqbul Butt. It was the JKLF that started the present movement in the state.

But what did the Hurriyat Leaders do to the JKLF?
Some leaders of the Hurriyat systematically wiped out the JKLF with Pakistani help. The Jamaatis, especially the Hizbul Mujahideen, killed JKLF cadres. We challenge the Hurriyat leaders to deny this; we challenge their representatives championing human rights in London and New York to refute this. Did you or did you not kill hundreds of JKLF boys in Kashmir during the last 8 years? Did not the Jamaatis also pass information about the JKLF to the Indian security forces so that whoever remained could be finished off? Did Pakistani agencies not stop giving guns to the JKLF and no ammunition either so that the JKLF could do nothing but die?

Why was the JKLF finished off?
Because then the Jamaatis could rule the roost in Kashmir. Because then the Wahabis could destroy the Kashmiri culture and plant the culture of Jamaat e Islami and Pakistan in Kashmir. Today, even Yasin Malik has to seek shelter from the Jamaatis. And what are the Jamaatis and others doing? They are making money.

What are the people saying in Srinagar?
You can visit Syed Ali Shah Gilani's house in the New Airport Road in Srinagar. He is the leader of all the Jamaatis and also has a big say in the running of the Hizbul Mujahideen. You can see that today his house is full of marble. He has so much money that even the exterior wall of his house is covered with marble. But the poor in Srinagar can barely eat. In winter they have no electricity and hardly any food. Is this what the Kashmiri fought for?

What has the CBI found?
The CBI has found that three prominent leaders of Jammu and Kashmir's All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) have been receiving massive funds from foreign sources during the last few years of militant-related violence in the Valley.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed chargesheets against Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Abdul Gani Lone and Maulana Abbas Ansari for violating the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976 (FCRA). No charges are there against the chairman of the APHC, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

Hurriyat in Hawala Transactions?
The arrest of Ashfaq Hussain Lone, a Hizbul Mujahideen activist in Delhi on March 5, 1991, revealed that the Hurriyat is involved in the same money laundering channels that are used by corrupt Indian businessmen. Ashfaq told the CBI that Shahabuddin Gori, who poses as a student of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, had given him Rs 16.27 lakh after receiving the money from Shambhu Dayal Sharma alias Guptaji through a hawala transaction.

Bank drafts in three different names totalling Rs 15.5 lakh each, and about Rs 50,000 in cash, were recovered at the instance of Ashfaq from the Jamaat-e-lslami guesthouse in the Chitli Qabar area of Delhi.

The latest CBI probe and the subsequent prosecution of the three prominent Hurriyat leaders follow a formal permission from the Jammu and Kashmir Government. The Union Home Ministry had sought clearance from the Farooq Abdullah Government earlier last month for handing over the case against the Hurriyat leaders for initiating prosecution by the CBI. The J&K Government has decided to give the green signal to permit the prosecution of the three Hurriyat leaders.

Purchased property worth Rs 87 lakhs in the name of his son-in-law, Altaf Shah Fantosh, who runs a cloth shop in Srinagar's Lal Chowk.

Purchased an orchard in Sopore district.

Taken his family out of India on lavish foreign tours

Has three houses in Kashmir alone

Is paid Rs 30 lakhs per month by the ISI

Daughter is based in Delhi and received lakhs of rupees from Pakistan

Has purchased several flats in Delhi including one costing crores in New friends Colony

Has built palatial house in Rawalpora, Srinagar

During his tour of USA, UK and Middle East, all his expenses were paid by Pakistani leaders and by people like Ghulam Nabi Fai and Ayub Thukar

Collected more than three million Saudi riyals during his stay in Saudi Arabia

Ansari is a Shia and receives money regularly from Iran. Also takes money from ISI

Has a printing press, which has recently been fully computerised

Has built a palatial house in Srinagar and is developing properties near Shamshan Bhoomi.

Has also purchased house at Khan Kahi Sokhta and bought another house for his brother in Srinagar