Mehbooba, Omar, 3 more J&K leaders booked under PSA
Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, besides two political stalwarts from NC and its arch-rival PDP were booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) by the administration on Thursday, officials said here. A magistrate accompanied by police served the order to Ms Mufti at the bungalow where she has been detained, officials said.
Former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti were on Thursday slapped with Jammu and Kashmir's stringent Public Safety Act (PSA), six months after they along with hundreds other political leaders and activists were taken into preventive custody ahead of the government's stripping the erstwhile state of its special status and splitting it up into two Union Territories.
The official sources here said that Srinagar’s district magistrate, Shahid Iqbal Chaudhary, signed the detention orders which are being served on Mr. Abdullah and Ms. Mufti who are presently detained at Hari Niwas and 5 Moulana Azad Road, two government owned properties in Srinagar, declared as “subsidiary jails”, respectively.
The grounds on which they have been detained under the PSA are still not known.
Both Mr Abdullah and Ms Mufti were taken into
◗ Former IAS officer-turned-politician Shah Faesal is also reported to have been detained under the PSA
preventive custody under section 107 of CrPC, with no FIRs lodged though, on the intervening night of August 4 and 5, 2019. According to the law, their detentions were to end this week.
Earlier on Wednesday night, the authorities had detained National Conference (NC) general secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar and senior People's Democratic Party (PDP) leader Sartaj Madni under the PSA and subsequently sent them to a makeshift jail here. Former IAS officer turned-politician Shah Faesal is also reported to have been detained under the same law.
The authorities have slapped the PSA on these leaders amid reports that the government may act tough against those mainstream politicians of J&K who remain unswerving in their opposition to its August 5, 2019 contentious moves- stripping the state of its special status and splitting it up into two Union Territories.
Mr Sagar is a former minister and holds number three position in the NC. Mr Madni, who has served the PDP as its senior vice-president, is also maternal uncle of party president Ms. Mufti.
The grounds on which they have been detained under the PSA include their capacity and capability of mobilising people on varied issues.
After being served detention orders under the PSA, both Mr Sagar and Mr Madni were shifted to an official guesthouse along Srinagar’s Gupkar Road which has been declared as a “subsidiary jail” by the government.