Sopore: Expressing pro-freedom sentiments on social media proved costly for a South Kashmir resident, as police booked him under contentious Public Safety Act and shifted him to outside Kashmir Jail.
Police however said that Aatif Hassan, a resident of Deva Colony, Janglat Mandi area of South Kashmir’s Anantnag district was a habitual offender involved in multiple cases of stone-pelting.
According to Police from past 9 years, all but 55 FIR’s stand registered against 28 year old Aatif Hasan in different police stations of the district.
Sources said that police arrested Aatif two weeks back when he was coming out of Anantnag District Court complex after a hearing into a previous case.
Locals said that Aatif Hasan was doing his routine pharmaceutical business and rarely appeared in any anti-India protest. “He was targeted for expressing his pro-freedom sentiments on the social media,” said one of his relatives.
Aatif Hasan, who is the father of a baby girl, has been shifted to Kathua Jail under Public Safety Act. It was fourth PSA slapped upon him.
PSA provides for arresting and jailing a person without trial for two years on mere suspicion that he/she may disrupt law and order in the state or may act in a manner prejudicial to the security of the state. The Act bypasses all the institutional procedures and human rights safeguards of ordinary criminal justice system in order to secure a long detention term.
Earlier this month, authorities slapped Public Safety Act on a religious preacher Mufti Shabir Ahmed Qasmi, a resident of Khiram village of the same district and shifted him to Kathua Jail.
