National Conference President, Farooq Abdullah and Vice President Omar Abdullah on Monday filed a habeas corpus petition in J&K High Court, challenging the “unconstitutional and illegal” house detention of 16 party leaders and functionaries.
A statement said Abdullah filed a petition seeking release of party leaders, Ali Muhammad Sagar, Abdul Rahim Rather, Nasir Aslam Wani, Aga Syed Mehmood, Muhammad Khalil Bandh, Irfan Shah and Sahmeema Firdous from illegal house detention while Omar Abdullah is challenging the detention of Muhammad Shafi Uri, Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, Chaudhary Muhammad Ramzaan, Mubarak Gul, Dr Bashir Veeri, Abdul Majeed Larmi, Basharat Bukhari, Saifudin Bhat Shutru, Muhammad Shafi through their counsel, advocate Shariq Reyaz.
The party spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said the decision to move to the court has been taken as a last resort to provide relief to various party members who have continuously been under house arrest or were kept under house detention after being shifted to their residences from detention centers.
“Shifting of the detainees from detention centers to their homes only characterized revolving-door detention practice. Quashing of the PSA on party General Secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar underscored the indefensible nature of all detentions in the court of law, leading us to believe that the administration will release all the detainees in the absence of any convincing reason behind it. Unfortunately, that was not to be. The house detentions without any administrative orders are unlawful, undermining due respect to human rights and individual liberty,” he said.
“We are hopeful that the Court will come to the rescue of our colleagues, who have been suffering for no fault ever since the abrogation of provisions of Article 370, Article 35A on 5 Aug 2019. This was the only recourse left to us. We are of the firm belief that the Court will uphold the civil liberties of our colleagues most of whom have not been keeping well,” he said.