Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir administration Friday
extended by another three months the detention of former Chief
Minister Mehbooba Mufti under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
Mufti has spent almost a year in confinement, first at a government
guesthouse and then at her residence, since the August 5 clampdown on
J&K’s political leadership following the revocation of its special
status.Mufti, who remains one of the last mainstream political leaders
booked and detained under PSA, was first placed under preventive
detention and in February, she was charged under the PSA with former
CMs Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah. Both Omar and Farooq were
released in March.
Earlier in the day, People’s Conference chairman and former state
minister Sajad Lone was released from house arrest, almost a year
after he was detained in the wake of the abrogation of Article 370.The
Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978 is a preventive detention law,
under which a person is taken into custody to prevent him or her from
acting in any manner that is prejudicial to “the security of the state
or the maintenance of the public order”. It is very similar to the
National Security Act that is used by other state governments for
preventive detention.The PSA allows for detention of a person without
a formal charge and without trial. It can be slapped on a person
already in police custody; on someone immediately after being granted
bail by a court; or even on a person acquitted by the court. Detention
can be up to two years.
