Dozens of detainees booked under PSA likely to be released

Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Feb 18: Administration is likely to revoke Public Safety Act (PSA) against few dozen people who are under detention in various jails outside Jammu and Kashmir and Central Jail Srinagar.
Sources said that Union Home Ministry has sought a list of detainees booked under PSA whose release can be considered. Sources said that the administration has sent a list of over 50 persons who have been booked under PSA in August last year after abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.
The list has been prepared by Multi-agencies operating in Kashmir and then handed over to the UT administration, which has sent it to Union Home Ministry where it would be scrutinized before final decision is taken for their release. However, 8 mainstream political leaders are not figuring in the list.
Around 450 people were booked under PSA in August last year as part of a major clampdown in Kashmir to prevent any protests over the Centre’s decision. However, 26 persons including former Kashmir Bar Association president, Nazir Ahmed Ronga, were released last month.
Besides this, former Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCC&I) president, Mubeen Shah, was also released on health grounds after Supreme Court’s intervention. Detention of two more people was quashed on health grounds while Jamat-e-Islami leader, Ghulam Mohammed Bhat, 65, a resident of Kulangam in Handwara in North Kashmir, detained under the PSA in July last year died in UP jail last year in December.
396 people from Kashmir are still booked under PSA and lodged in different jails across Jammu and Kashmir and other States including Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan since August last year.
Among those booked under PSA are three former Chief Ministers- Dr Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, former IAS officer and head of People’s Movement, Shah Faesal, NC leaders Ali Mohammad Sagar, Hilal Ahmad Lone, former Additional Advocate General of Jammu and Kashmir and son of NC MP Mohammad Akbar Lone, PDP leaders Sartaj Madni and Naeem Akhtar.
Scores of mainstream party leaders belong to NC, PDP, Peoples Conference, Awami Ithad Party were jailed under preventive detention or were kept under house arrest in August last year but majority of them have been released and 8 of them were booked under PSA. However, two of them–PDP leader Peer Mansoor and AIP leader Bilal Sultan are still in jail under preventive detention.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here