Sagar, Akhtar, Madni continue to be jailed
Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, May 5: The detention under the Public Safety Act of the former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and three other senior leaders of her party and National Conference was extended by three months this evening.
The PSA detention of these leaders was ending today but was extended by three months by Home department of Jammu and Kashmir this evening.
Mehbooba is under detention since August 5 when special status of Jammu and Kashmir was scrapped and State was bifurcated into two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Authorities have also extended the PSA of NC general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar and PDP leaders Sartaj Madni and Nayeem Akhtar.
The three leaders were detained under the PSA in February this year after completing six months in preventive detention.
Mehbooba was last month shifted to her official residence at Gupkar in Srinagar. She was shifted to Gupkar residence after a separate order declared it as Subsidiary Jail.
Sagar had challenged his detention and demanded that he should be released on bail. The High Court last week granted two weeks to Government on his plea. But before the Government response was to be filed in the Court, his PSA was extended by three months.
Government had detained over 7000 persons in Jammu and Kashmir including three former Chief Ministers and top mainstream leaders in August. Of them, more than 300 were shifted outside J&K and lodged in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana jails.
However, majority of them were released and PSA of around 200 people was quashed so far. They included two former Chief Ministers- Omar Abdullah and Farooq Abdullah. Omar and Farooq were also detained in August and later PSA was invoked against them.
Omar Abdullah was released on March 24 after his PSA was quashed by the Government. He spent almost 8 months in Jail. His sister had approached the Supreme Court for his release and the Apex Court had granted a week’s time for the Government to respond. But they let him off before the time granted to them by the SC.
Earlier, Dr Farooq Abdullah was released on March 13 after government revoked his PSA.
After outbreak of deadly coronavirus, Government revoked PSA detention orders of 170 persons lodged in J&K, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana jails. They were later released and included trader’s president Mohammad Yaseen Khan and two JKLF leaders Shoukat Bakhshi and Mushtaq Ajmal.
Meanwhile, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah today said the decision to extend the detention of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti was “unbelievably cruel” and “retrograde”.
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