Farooq’s relatives, 11 other women released from jail

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 16

The authorities in Kashmir today released National Conference president Farooq Abdullah’s sister and daughter and 11 other prominent women from Srinagar Central Jail after all of them furnished a “bond of peace and tranquility”.

Farooq’s daughter Safiya Abdullah, sister Suraiya Mattoo and other high-profile women, including Hawa Bashir, a retired professor and the wife of former J&K High Court Chief Justice Bashir Khan, Muslim Jan, a Kashmir University professor, Ruqaya Saeed, wife of senior journalist Saeed Malik and others were detained by the police on Tuesday morning as they attempted to hold a protest demonstration in Srinagar city against the abrogation of Article 370 and detention of political leaders.

After being rounded up from the Pratap Park area by the Police, these women were later on lodged at high-security Central Jail in Srinagar, wherefrom they were released this evening after spending a night there.

A senior police official told The Tribune that there was no FIR against these protesting women, adding that their detention was preventive in nature. Advocate Altaf Khan, one of the lawyers who represented these detained women, said “all of them were released around 5.30 pm from the Central Jail in Srinagar after furnishing a bond of peace and tranquility” before the magistrate concerned and also surety bonds.

He said they were informed by the jail authorities that the 13 protesting women were detained under Sections 107 and 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

While staging the protest on Tuesday, Farooq’s sister Suraiya Mattoo carried a placard that read “Release all detainees”, while Farooq’s daughter Safiya held a placard reading “Why downgrade Jammu and Kashmir state”.

The protesting women, while holding protest in the Lal Chowk area following the August 5 abrogation of J&K’s special status, had said the people in kashmir were not happy with the decisions taken by the New Delhi as they had been silenced.

Before being detained, Hawa Bashir told mediapersons that Kashmiris were not happy with the abrogation of Article 370 and downgrading of the J&K state into two Union Territories. “These (government) people say that Kashmiris are happy but we came here to say that we are not happy at all,” Bashir said.