Srinagar, Jan 20: Police on Wednesday detained Muslim League chairman and Hurriyat Conference (G) leader, Masarrat Alam Bhat, and lodged him in Shaheed Gunj police station even after a local court had rejected its plea for remand and ordered his immediate release.
 Giving the details, Bhat’s lawyer, Arshad Andrabi, said the Nigeen police had sought from the Forest Magistrate a 7-day remand for Masarrat Alam on Wednesday even after the court had quashed his detention under the Public Safety Act on five earlier occasions. The judge rejected the plea and ordered his immediate release saying that his bail had been granted a few days earlier.
 However, Andrabi said, instead of releasing Bhat, the police assured of setting him free from the Nigeen police station. “But he was taken to Shaheed Gunj police station where the officials told us to wait for a night,” he said, adding the “detention” without any case being pending against him was illegal and it was not known what treatment would be meted out to him during the overnight detention. “In case the police authorities continue to defy court orders in the highhanded manner, they could be proceeding against for contempt,” he said. 
 Meanwhile, Muslim League spokesman, Muhammad Sadiq Islahi, said that instead of releasing Masarrat Alam, police had brazenly defied court orders and detained him by implicating him in false cases. “He had been detained under the PSA on five occasions in the past one and a half years. Although the detentions were quashed by the courts, he has not been released and is being implicated in one after the other false case,” he said.
 Likewise, the spokesman said, another activist of the organization, Abdul Ahad Parra, had not been released even after being acquitted of all the charges. He urged the global human rights organizations to depute a team to India to see the situation for themselves. 

Lastupdate on : Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 IST