J&K parties contradict MHA claim on house arrests

Kishan Reddy told House that 223 people in J&K are under detention

Various mainstream and separatist parties in Jammu and Kashmir have ridiculed the Home Ministry’s claim that no leader in the Union Territory (UT) is currently under house arrest.

While former minister and senior People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader, Naeem Akhtar, claimed that he and as many as 35 other mainstream leaders stayed under house arrest till Wednesday morning, a statement issued by separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference here said that its chairman and Kashmir’s chief Muslim cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq continued to be under house detention since August 5 last year.

“On that day, police vehicles were parked on both the gates of his house compound and since he is not being allowed to move out and even go to Jama Masjid (Grand Mosque) where he would deliver customary sermons on Fridays,” the amalgam faction said.

Minister of State (Home) G. Kishan Reddy, in a written reply to a question raised by Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Ray said in Lok Sabha on Tuesday that no leader in J&K is currently under house arrest. He, however, admitted that 223 people in J&K are under detention.

He said, “As on the 11 September, 223 persons are under detention. No person is under house arrest in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.”

“The situation on the ground is contrary to what the Home Ministry has claimed. After the authorities revoked my detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA) in the third week of June, I was placed under house arrest. I’m not being allowed to go out,” said Mr. Akhtar.

Soon after ending his ten and half month long detention under the PSA, he was asked to vacate his government accommodation or face forcible eviction.

He said, “I’ve just travelled one distance from that house to this new rented one and that too under police escort. However, I was allowed some days ago to go out to get an ultrasonography test done on the advice of my doctor and again policemen accompanied me.” Mr. Akhtar said that the policemen continued to be deployed at the gate of his house who did not allow him even to attend a PDP leaders’ meeting called by by its general secretary Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura at the party headquarters here on September 3.

“We have to see it in the larger construct of the situation in Kashmir. This is part of the entire new system which has been introduced here that the politicians should be at the mercy of the security establishment. They have to apply for and inform them (police) of their every activity,” Mr. Akhtar who also served as the chief spokesman of the PDP-BJP coalition government in the erstwhile state told this newspaper.

He said that earlier the J&K politicians categorized as “protected persons” and provided security cover would only inform the concerned authorities before visiting places and not seeking permission for it as such.

“But now you have to apply for even holding indoor party meetings three days in advance. The overall atmosphere is full of fear. They have unleashed all the agencies

on Kashmir. Everybody is directly under the scanner and people are scared. That’s where we have reached”.

He added, “There’s no account of the people they (police) claim everyday in the official bulletins having been arrested – some in the name of being OGWs (Over Ground Workers) and some militants. There’s no account ultimately where they go and if you relate it with unending protests by mothers and other relatives of the missing persons you can join the dots”.

Mr. Hanjura termed Mr. Reddy’s claim on the floor of Parliament as a “blatant lie”.

He said, “I could go out of my house for the first time

in past 13 months today (Wednesday) to address a meeting of the youth wing of the PDP at the party headquarters, the first such engagement since August 5, 2019. Some others also joined me but our 20 party leaders continue to be under house arrest whereas the party president Mehbooba Mufti remains in detention under the notorious PSA,” he said.

PDP youth president Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra said that he too was, for the first time on Wednesday, allowed to walk out of his home and attend the meeting at which threadbare deliberations were held on the prevailing political, social and economic situation in J&K.