The Government, on December 30, released five political leaders, who were detained at Sub-Jail Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA)s’ Hostel in Srinagar for last around five months and were put under house arrest, reports Daily Excelsior. Those leaders who were released are senior Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader and former Minister, Zahoor Ahmad Mir, former legislator, Yasir Reshi and PDP leader, Bashir Ahmad Mir, National Conference (NC) leader and former MLA of Ganderbal District, Ishfaq Jabbar and NC leader, Ghulam Nabi Bhat. However, they have been put under house arrest and won’t be allowed to move out of their houses.
However, 25 political leaders, including Peoples Conference chairman, Sajjad Lone, NC general secretary, Ali Mohammad Sagar and Mubarak Gul, PDP leaders, Nizam-ud-Din Bhat, Sartaj Madni, Nayeem Akhtar, Peer Mansoor and Khurshid Alam and former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer turned politician, Shah Faesal, are still detained at MLA Hostel Sub-Jail. Three former Chief Ministers, including, Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti are under detention since August 5, 2019.
The list of 40 detainees, booked under PSA and lodged in various jails outside Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) since August, 2019, was sent to the UHM for consideration of their release. Around 450 persons are detained under PSA and majority of them are lodged in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana jails. They were mostly detained around August 5, when, Articles 370 and 35A, were scrapped and J&K State was re-organised into Union Territories of Ladakh and J&K. However, one of the detainees under PSA, Mubeen Shah was released on December 7 on health grounds from Agra following Supreme Court (SC) intervention. A cancer patient Parvaiz Ahmad Pala of Kulgam District was also released early this month after High Court (HC) quashed his detention under PSA and directed the Government to release him.