Detained since Aug, two NC leaders hospitalised

Srinagar, November 29

Two senior National Conference (NC) leaders who have been under preventive detention for 116 days following the abrogation of Article 370 provisions were today shifted to a government hospital here, where they underwent angiography, the party said.

Party general secretary and former minister Ali Mohammed Sagar and former party MLA from Ganderbal constituency Ishfaq Ahmed, along with 32 other political detenues, were recently moved to the MLA hostel from Centaur Hotel. Their families have alleged that the hostel lacked proper heating arrangements required in the “harsh” winter of Kashmir.

Lok Sabha member of the NC from Anantnag constituency Hasnain Masoodi wrote to the Principal Secretary (Home) of the newly created UT of Jammu and Kashmir, stating that the two leaders had undergone angiography at the premier Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS).

Urging the administration to consider shifting the duo to their homes after discharge from hospital, Masoodi, a retired High Court judge, said they suffered from ailments of heart and needed constant medical care.

The families of the detained political leaders said during their incarceration at the hotel and subsequently at the MLA hostel, the detenues were not allowed to go for a walk and were confined largely to their rooms.

Expressing grave concern over the deteriorating health of several political leaders due to lack of facilities at the places they have been lodged, senior NC leaders issued a statement seeking detailed medical bulletin of all detenues on a daily basis. In a statement, party leaders said, “It is inhumane and cruel to lodge the political prisoners at places san heating, medical and other facilities.”

Sagar, who represented the Khanyar Assembly seat in downtown Srinagar and has served in important positions in the cabinet of Farooq Abdullah as well as that of his son Omar Abdullah, and Ahmed, who made his political debut in 2014, are among the 34 political detenues who were shifted to the MLA Hostel on November 17 from Centaur Hotel as it lacked proper heating arrangements.

The winter chill had taken a toll on the health of the detenues -National Conference, PDP and People’s Conference leaders and prominent social activists – and the security personnel guarding them, they said. The administration had carried out the required modification of rooms at the MLA Hostel to accommodate the political prisoners. It has been declared as a subsidiary jail by an order of the Union Territory of J&K’s Home Department. — PTI