Hostel lacks facilities: J&K detainees’ kin

SRINAGAR: Families of detained mainstream Kashmiri political leaders, who have been under custody for over three months now, on Wednesday rued the lack of basic amenities at the MLA hostel here, where the detainees were moved from a hotel early this week.

The f amilies, who were allowed to meet the leaders, claimed that the MLA hostel did not have proper heating arrangements and the food being provided to the politicians was substandard.

With Srinagar reeling under harsh winter conditions, the Jammu and Kashmir administration on Sunday shifted 34 political prisoners to the MLA Hostel, which has been designated a subjail, from Centaur Hotel as it lacked heating arrangements.

“This building lacks basic facilities. There are no heating arrangements, no proper lighting arrangements. We have to get these facilities ourselves,” Shehriyar Khanum, daughter of former minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Naeem Akhtar, told reporters.

Most of the top-level and second rung mainstream politicians were detained on August 5, when the Centre abrogated the special status of the erstwhile state of J&K and announced the decision to bifurcate it into two Union territories.

Former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti continue to be in detention.

The government has detained former chief minister and sitting Lok Sabha MP from Srinagar Farooq Abdullah under the controversial Public Safety Act.