Srinagar
Senior Peoples Democratic Party leader and former vice-chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Khadi and Village Industries Board (KVIB) Peerzada Mansoor Hussain has slapped the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA), taking the number of political leaders booked under the law to nine.
A Jammu based newspaper Daily Excelsior quoted sources as having said that a dossier was handed over to the PDP leader Thursday and he was booked under PSA. However, he was not shifted out of the MLA hostel so far. Shah Faesal and Hilal Lone, who were also booked under PSA earlier this month are also in MLA hostel Sub-jail.
35 mainstream politicians were moved from Centaur hotel on banks of the Dal Lake to the MLA hostel in November 2019 and most of them have been released now or have been booked under PSA.
Now, only four politicians are in the sub-jail MLA hostel. Three of them- Shah Faesal and Hilal Lone and Peer Mansoor are now under PSA and Bilal Sultan is still under preventive detention. Sources said that police today arrived at the MLA hostel to take custody of Bilal Sultan. However, they were lacking the documents for his hand over. Sources said that they may take his custody as his preventive detention has ended, said the report.
The administration besides slapping PSA against former Chief Minister- Dr Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti- invoked the law against former IAS officer Shah Faesal, NC leaders Ali Mohammad Sagar and Hilal Lone, PDP leaders Sartaj Madni, Naeem Akhtar and Peer Mansoor since February 5, it said.
The first mainstream leader to be booked under PSA was Dr Farooq Abdullah. He is, however, lodged in his own house at Gupkar, Srinagar.
So far, over 400 people were booked under PSA in Kashmir since August 5. However, around two dozen of them were released but 397 are still under detention under the Act.—KMS
