PSA detainee from J&K dies in Allahabad jail

Srinagar, December 22

A 65-year-old detenu, a member of the banned Jamaat-i-Islamia, booked under the stringent Public Safety Act and sent outside Jammu and Kashmir, died in Allahabad jail, officials said on Sunday.

Ghulam Mohammed Bhat, a resident of Kulangam in the frontier district of Handwara of North Kashmir, was among hundreds of people detained under the PSA immediately after the Centre abrogated the special status of J&K on August 5 and divided it into two Union Territories — Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.

The PSA slapped on Bhat, an active member of the banned Jamaat-i-Islamia, was to end on January 9 next year, they said.

Bhat was suffering from various ailments and breathed his last at Naini Central Jail on Saturday at 4 pm, the officials said, adding that his body was airlifted and brought here and handed over to the family for burial.

Two cases — one in 2016 and another this year — were registered against him under various sections of the law, including those under the anti-terror law Unlawful (Activities) Prevention Act.

Reacting to the news, the official twitter handle of former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, which is being operated by her daughter Iltija, condemned the incident and said Bhat was the first Kashmiri political detainee to have died at a jail outside Kashmir. “MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) has blood on its hands and must be held accountable,” the tweet read. Around 300 political detenues, held under the PSA, were shifted out of Kashmir Valley post August 5 and lodged in various jails of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan.

The PSA has also been slapped on former state Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, who is a sitting member of the Lok Sabha. He has been kept at his residence. Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, also former chief ministers, have been kept under preventive detention since August 5. — PTI