Malik booked under PSA, sent to Kotbalwal jail

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik was on Thursday detained under the Public Safety Act, which provides for at least six months of detention without a trial. He was shifted to Kotbhalwal jail in Jammu.

This is Malik’s second PSA detention since 2014.

   

In 2009, the JKLF chief was detained under this law but thehigh court had quashed his detention after six months of imprisonment. In 1999also, he was booked under PSA and lodged in Jodhpur jail, a JKLF spokesman saidin a statement.

Malik, who was detained by police on February 22 and lodgedin police station Kothibagh, according to JKLF spokesman, was Thursday informedabout the PSA and, soon after, driven to the Jammu jail.

In his native place, Maisuma, shopkeepers downed theirshutters. A witness said that a group of women, children and youth also held aprotest.

The Joint ResistanceLeadership (JRL) comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and MuhammadYasin Malik called Malik’s PSA detention the “most condemnable act”.

In a statement, the JRL urgedthe people of Kashmir to hold protests after Friday prayers and observe acomplete shutdown on Friday against the arrest spree, the ban onJamaat-e-Islami, “attempts to tinker with” the Article 35A, stating that these”dictatorial” moves deserve “our stiff protest and resistance”.

“Today senior resistanceleader and chairman of JKLF has been slapped with draconian PSA and shifted toKotbalwal jail Jammu. In a similar manner, spokesman of JeI advocate Zahid Aliand many others have been booked under PSA and shifted to different jails,” theJRL said.  “These arbitrary arrests anddetentions can not deter resistance leaders and activists and the people ofJ&K from pursuing the path of resistance,” the statement read.

The JRL said that it is aknown fact that Malik is a chronic heart patient who suffers from many otherailments also.

“Callous, dictatorial mindset and approach of police and civil administration is such that they did not allow a leader of Malik’s stature to meet his ailing mother and other family members and shifted him to Jammu,” the leadership said. 

Meanwhile, authorities placed Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq under house detention in view of the JRL’s call for protest and shutdown on Friday. A source in the Hurriyat (M) said Mirwaiz was informed that he can’t move out of his Nigeen residence as he has been placed under house detention.

In the wake of strike and protest call given by the JRL, authorities in Srinagar have decided to impose restrictions on assembly of people in areas falling under the jurisdiction of police stations MaharajGunj, SafaKadal, Khanyar, Nowhatta and Rainawari and Maisuma.

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