Govt releases Lone from detention
SRINAGAR/NEWDELHI: Former minister Sajjad Lone and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Waheed Parra were released on Wednesday, even as the government told the Rajya Sabha that 437 people, including three former chief ministers of Jammu & Kashmir, remain under detention in the erstwhile state.
Lone and Parra’s release came exactly six months to the day after Parliament passed laws and resolutions bifurcating Jammu & Kashmir state into two Union territories, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, and nullified constitutional provisions (Articles 370 and 35A) that gave the region special status and its residents special privileges. To manage the fallout, many political leaders were detained and restrictions, including an internet blackout, imposed. Many of these have since been eased.
The three former CMs are Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti; the government also told Parliament that none of those in detention is a minor.
In all, the minister of state for home G Kishan Reddy told the Rajya Sabha, “6,605” persons, who included “miscreants, stone-pelters, overground workers, separatists” were taken into “preventive custody” in August 2019 when the government nullified Article 370.
Out of the total, 444 were detained under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA). At present, 389 people are in detention under the PSA, Reddy said in a separate reply.
He added that regular reviews are undertaken on a case-bycase basis and accordingly, extension in detention or revocation is made based on reports of field agencies and the ground situation. Lone is the most prominent of the eight Kashmiri leaders released from preventive custody since Sunday. He was a minister in Mufti’s PDP-led government which was formed in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The coalition government fell in June 2018. Lone, a former BJP ally, was detained after he joined hands with other state leaders in their opposition to any change to Jammu & Kashmir’s constitutional status.
Srinagar’s deputy commissioner Shahid Iqbal Choudhary announced the release of the two leaders.
The two headed to their homes following their release from a legislators’ hostel in Srinagar that has been converted into a sub-jail. “Last time when I spoke I was detained for six months,’’ Parra said while declining to comment further.