A special NIA court in Srinagar on Tuesday issued a proclamation against overseas "azaadi" advocates, including a leading US-based architect and a former head of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries, declaring them as absconding accused and directing them to appear before it.

Separately, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has imposed an ex-parte ban on the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) in four Kashmir and two Jammu districts, citing a threat to national security and apprehensions of “incitement to unrest”.

The Shopian district magistrate who issued the order said the VPNs helped mask IP addresses and “create point-to-point tunnels” that could “enable users to bypass website blocks and firewalls, thereby making data related to sensitive information vulnerable to cyber-attacks”.

Both decisions mark a significant step up in the crackdown on purported separatist activities following the busting of a “white-collar terror module” of mostly doctors that is believed to be behind the Red Fort blast.

A police statement said the Counter Intelligence Kashmir had tightened the noose on “anti-national propagandists” in a “major crackdown on anti-national propaganda and secessionist misinformation”, culminating in the NIA court's proclamation under Section 82 of the CrPC.

The police said the Srinagar court's proclamation was issued against Mubeen Ahmad Shah, a doctor-turned-businessman based in Malaysia who headed the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry, US-based architect Azizul Hassan Ashai alias Tony Ashai and Germany-based vlogger Rifat Wani. Shah and Ashai are from Srinagar, while Wani is from Kupwara.

“The case pertains to serious offences under Sections 153-A & 505 of the IPC and Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, registered on the basis of credible intelligence inputs revealing a well-orchestrated conspiracy by unscrupulous anti-social and anti-national elements operating at the behest of secessionist forces within and outside the Valley,” the statement said.

“The investigation has exposed that these elements were masquerading as news portals, journalists and freelancers, while in reality weaponising social media platforms such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and WhatsApp to create, upload and circulate fake, motivated, exaggerated, secessionist and out-of-context content,” it added.

The police said a “deliberate objective of this digital misinformation campaign was to incite street violence, disrupt normal life, damage public property, disturb public order and fuel mass unrest, thereby promoting anti-national sentiments and advancing a secessionist agenda aimed at creating disaffection against the Union of India”.

The police claimed they had issued arrest warrants against the accused but they had gone underground.

“Failure to comply will invite stringent proceedings under Section 83 CrPC, including attachment of property,” the police said.

Shah, who runs a business in Malaysia, was among thousands of Kashmiris arrested in the crackdown that began ahead of the August 5 scrapping of Article 370. He was booked under the Public Safety Act. His wife Asifa had then challenged his detention in the Supreme Court, which granted him bail.

Ashai is a leading architect with a master’s from the State University of New York in Buffalo. After the 2019 scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir's special status, he had been an advocate of "azaadi" in the US.

Wani, a German citizen, has been a "pro-azaadi" activist for long.