The detention of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader and former Cabinet Minister Naeem Akhtar was extended by three months under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) on Friday.
An official said Mr. Akhtar, who was arrested on August 5 last year and booked under the PSA on February 8, “may pose threat to public order.”
With a view to prevent him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order, Mr. Akhtar’s detention is being extended for a further period of three months, reads the order of the J&K Home Department.
Mr. Akhtar is considered close to PDP president and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, whose detention was also extended by three months under the PSA recently.
Mr. Akhtar, who served as the State’s Education and Public Works Minister, has become the fourth top regional leader, after Sartaj Madani, Ali Muhammad Sagar and Ms. Mufti, to face extension of detention under the PSA. Earlier this year, National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah were released by the administration. All these leaders were arrested in August last year as the Centre ended J&K’s special status after over seven decades.
“This is another attempt to disallow democratic process in Kashmir. J&K’s leaders are being detained for pitching for the safeguards promised as constitutional guarantees to the people of the State. By taking such undemocratic, unconstitutional, and unnatural measures, the government in reality is trying to show its electorate how tough it is against Muslims and against J&K,” said a PDP spokesman.
“Such measures will have far-reaching consequences. It will only increase alienation and frustration among the people. Ideas cannot be chained, banned or killed, and in a democracy, ideas are allowed to flourish and not choked,” the spokesman added.
J&K Peoples Movement chief Shah Faesal’s detention under the PSA will complete three months on February 15. Mr. Faesal was also arrested after his interviews to international media on the abrogation of Article 370.
