Former civil servant and chief of Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM), Shah Faesal, was on Saturday booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA).
Faesal now joins a long list of leaders in Jammu and Kashmir, including three former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, who have been booked under the PSA. Other political leaders who have been charged under the PSA are Ali Mohammed Sagar, Naeem Akhtar, Sartaj Madani and Hilal Lone.
Kashmiri IAS topper-turned-politician, Shah Faesal was in August last, detained at the Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport when he was about to board a flight to leave the country.
The Public Safety Act or PSA allows detention of any individual for up to two years without a trial.
Omar Abdullah’s father, three-time former Chief Minister and sitting MP, Farooq Abdullah is already booked under PSA and lodged at his Srinagar residence, which has been designated as a sub-jail.
In December last, the detention of senior Abdullah — who was slapped with PSA on September 17 last year — was extended by three months.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Jammu and Kashmir administration on a plea of Sara Abdullah Pilot, sister of former J-K chief minister Omar Abdullah, challenging his detention under PSA. The top court also asked the J-K administration to file a reply by March 2. The court has fixed March 2 as the next hearing on the matter and declined to list it before 15 days.
A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra declined to entertain submission by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Sara, seeking immediate relief in the Habeas Corpus petition.
Around 400 politicians including former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah were placed under house arrest after the Centre abrogated Article 370 and bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories on August 5.
The state government had earlier defended the preventive detentions of the leaders saying that they were made in accordance with the provisions of law to maintain law and order in the Valley.