Masarat Aalam detained under fresh PSA order, shifted to Jammu jail

‘One-week period to pursue legal remedy’ denied to the separatist leader

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, April 23: Kashmiri separatist hardliner Masarat Aalam Bhat has been detained under a fresh order, issued by District Magistrate of Budgam under Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act [PSA], and immediately shifted to Jammu’s Kote Bhalwal Jail.

According to knowledgeable sources, Senior Superintendent of Police, Budgam, Fayaz Ahmad Lone, submitted a dossier for Aalam’s detention under PSA to District Magistrate Mir Altaf Ahmad who ordered the Muslim League leader’s arrest at midnight on Wednesday. Early on Thursday, grounds of detention were read out to Aalam and he was despatched to Kote Bhalwal Jail by road.

Sources said that the State Home Department, functioning directly under the control of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, would determine the period of Aalam’s detention in view of the charges levelled against him. Currently, he was under arrest with regard to FIR filed against him, and several others, under different provisions of Ranbir Penal Code and Unlawful Activities [Prevention] Act, for allegedly leading a strong pro-Pakistan rally in reception of the senior Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Immediately after taking over as Chief Minister on March 1^st, Mufti Sayeed had ordered Aalam’s release from 54-month-long detention as the beginning of his exercise to release all the political prisoners. In days of his release, however, Masarat landed in trouble on account of allegedly organising and leading a rally in which animated participants shouted pro-Pakistan slogans, demanded Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan, and waved Pakistani national flags while passing through the J&K Police Headquarters. Apparently under pressure from several quarters, he was booked under UAPA and subsequently arrested at his residence in Srinagar.

With the arguments in progress on his bail application in a judicial court in Budgam and a possibility of his getting bail on April 25, authorities on Wednesday night decided to detain him under PSA. The PSA detainees can be held without prosecution for a period of two years.

Arrested in 2010 for allegedly organising a violent summer agitation, which left over a hundred civilian demonstrators and arsonist dead and thousand injured, Aalam had not been released even after he was granted bail in over two dozen criminal cases registered against. His detention under PSA was extended or invoked afresh several times in the last four years.

‘Flawed’ detention order

Informed sources said that a battery of Srinagar-based lawyers would immediately not only challenge Aalam’s fresh detention order but also press contempt proceedings against the State government directly in Supreme Court of India. Their contention is that Budgam DM’s order has been enforced by Police without granting the accused a period of one week for seeking legal remedy.

While disposing of Writ Petition No: 2 of 2013, on March 22, 2013, the Supreme Court of India Bench, comprising Justice R.M. Lodha and Justice Chelameswar, had ordered: “However, it is observed that if any fresh detention order is issued by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir with respect to Masarat Aalam Bhat, same shall not come into force for a period of one week from the date of communication of the order to enable him to pursue appropriate legal remedy”.

The Writ Petition had been filed by Aalam’s uncle Farooq Ahmad Bhat to seek dismissal of Srinagar District Magistrate’s Order No: DMS/PSA/39/2012 Dated October 30, 2012, whereunder Aalm had been detained. However, during the proceedings, J&K Government revoked Aalam’s detention while suo moto issuing Home Department’s Order No: Home-389 of 2013 Dated March 18, 2013. Accordingly the petition was disposed of but with a rider that Aalam be granted period of one week before his arrest to pursue legal remedy if the State were to detain on any fresh charges.

As Omar Abdullah’s government did not release him despite bail in all the criminal cases filed against him at different Police Stations, Aalam filed a separate petition in J&K High Court, seeking his release from “illegal confinement” and compensation worth Rs 50 lakh for “illegal detention” after June 14, 2014. The proceedings are in progress in Srinagar. It was during this course that the Government rejected Jammu Police’s and administration’s proposal of detaining PSA for a fresh term, though the main reason was that officials of DC’s office and Home Department had failed to get the action confirmed within stipulated period. The PDP-BJP government finally released Aalam in first week of March 2015.

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