Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Dec 17: Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory Government has sent a list of around 40 detainees booked under Public Safety Act (PSA) in August this year to the Union Home Ministry for consideration of their release.
The list of 40 detainees, booked under PSA and lodged in various jails outside Jammu and Kashmir since August this year, was sent to the Union Home Ministry for consideration of their release.
Around 450 persons are detained under PSA and majority of them are lodged in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana jails. They were mostly detained around August 5 when Articles 370 and 35A were scrapped and Jammu and Kashmir State was re-organised into Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.
These detainees whose list has been sent by the Home Department to the Home Ministry include former Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association President, Nazir Ahmad Ronga; former Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries president Dr Mubeen Shah; Advocate Zahid Ali of Jamat-e-Islamia, Shoukat Bakhshi of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and Mushtaq Ajmal of JKLF.
The others include a Sarpanch Zahoor Ahmad Mir from North Kashmir, Fridous Ahmad Baba, Bilal Akhtar, Altaf Ahmad Lone, Khalid Zargar, Abdul Rashid Shigam, Arif Sheikh, Pervaiz Ahmad Beigh, Shakeel Bhat, Latief Mir and Hilal Jan.
However, so far no decision has been taken by the MHA for their release. Sources said that whenever a decision on release of the PSA detainees is taken, they will be given preference. Two of them have been released on health grounds after intervention from Supreme Court and High Court.
One of them Mubeen Shah was released on December 7 on health grounds from Agra jail after intervention from Supreme Court. The Government last week revoked his PSA and released him permanently.
A cancer patient Parvaiz Ahmad Pala of Kulgam was also released early this month after High Court quashed his detention under PSA and directed government to release him.
Pala was arrested on August 7 and booked (order no. 37/DMK/PSA/19 dated 7.8.2019) under PSA passed by District Magistrate Kulgam on August 7. His detention was challenged by the family in High Court and it was quashed by Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey.
Pala is suffering from cancer and his counsel had pleaded before the Court that his detention could have led to his death.
The list was prepared by the UT Government with the help of various security agencies and some of the names were dropped before the list of was sent for the clearance from the Union Home Ministry.
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