MEHBOOBA SHIFTED TO DETENTION AT HER HOME
PDP chief’s home Fairview on Gupkar Road has been declared a subsidiary jail, Omar calls detention a cop out
SRINAGAR: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti, who was on Tuesday detained under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA), was shifted to her official residence that has been converted into a subsidiary jail where she would continue to be in detention.
Mufti was slapped with the PSA in February, which allows detention for up to two years without trial, months after she was taken into detention with the nullification of Constitution’s Article 370 that gave Jammu & Kashmir its special status.
In an order, principal secretary (home) Shaleen Kabra cited section 10 (b) of the PSA and added Mufti was being shifted from another subsidiary jail on Srinagar’s Maulana Azad Road to her residence.
SRINAGAR: After eight months of detention, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and PDP head Mehbooba Mufti, has been shifted to her residence in Srinagar which has been declared a sub-jail, where she will continue to remain under detention, an official order issued on Tuesday said.
She has been shifted to Fairview house on Gupkar Road which is her official residence. Mufti was arrested on August 5 in a crackdown ahead of the revocation of J&K’S special status.
The Public Safety Act of the former chief minister hasn’t been withdrawn and she will continue to remain in detention under the Act which was slapped on her on February 5.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (b) of Section 2 of the Prisoners Act, 1990, the government hereby declares Fairview, Gupkar Road, Srinagar as “Subsidiary Jail”,” an order issued by principal secretary to government Shaleen Kabra, reads.
Mufti is now the only former
J&K CM who continues to remain under detention. Former CMS Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah soon after their release had demanded that PDP president and others should be released.
“My gratitude to the media in Kashmir for their concern & well wishes. May I please humbly request that you give the family privacy as we wait for her to come home today. Please remember this isn’t a release & the house has been declared as a subsidiary jail,’’ said Mufti’s daughter, Iltija Mufti in a tweet.
Iltija had also demanded the release of her mother and even written a letter to home minister Amit Shah especially after the emergence of Covid-19 pandemic.
RELEASE MEHBOOBA, SAYS OMAR
National Conference (NC) vicepresident Omar Abdullah demanded that she should be released. “Mufti must be set free. Shifting her home while continuing to keep her detained is a cop out,” said Abdullah.
Top PDP leaders said that the continuous detention of the PDP president shows that the Centre is afraid of her as they consider her the main architect of the Gupkar declaration which was signed by leaders of different mainstream parties hours after three former CM’S were detained after the abrogation of Article 370.
“The government knows that Mehbooba Mufti will not change her stand vis-à-vis revocation of J&K special status. They also know that Mufti can mobilize the people so they want to keep her under detention,’’ said a senior PDP leader who is close to the party president.
PDP spokesman Tahir Sayeed termed the detention illogical: “It’s now punitive detention not preventive detention. Mufti should be released along with other political leaders,’’ he said.