Separatist leader Ashraf Sehrai arrested, booked under PSA

Arun Joshi
Jammu, July 12

Top Kashmiri separatist leader and Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Chairman Mohd. Ashraf Sehrai, who was expected to succeed Syed Ali Shah Geelani as the chairman of the hardline faction of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, was arrested from his residence in Srinagar on Sunday morning.

At the time of his arrest, police officials told him that he was being taken into “preventive custody”.

Later, Director General of Police Dilbag Singh told The Tribune that the separatist leader “has been booked under the Public Safety Act”. It was said that his activities were prejudicial to peace and public order.

The PSA detention means that the person can be kept under detention for at least one year without trial.

The preventive custody clause was invoked for the political leaders and separatists in the past to prevent them from causing “public disorder.”

Sehrai had shot into prominence when he ha assumed the chairmanship of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, the group founded by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Masrat Alam in September 2003, about a couple of years ago signalling a clash between him and Geelani.

Geelani ‘s son Naeem Geelani and Sehrai, sources said were locked in this succession war.