ISLAMABAD (ENNS/MD) India has extended the detention of four political leaders in occupied Kashmir, including former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, who have been held by authorities since August of last year after the Indian government scrapped Article 370 of the Indian constitution that granted special status to the occupied region.
The latest detention order was issued under the draconian Public Safety Act, which allows detention without charges for up to two years, officials in Srinagar told media. The officials said the detained include Abdullah, Mufti and regional party leaders Ali Mohmmad Sagar and Sartaj Madni.
Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter Iltija Mufti confirmed her mother’s detention under the law on Twitter.
“Just because BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] intentionally conflates itself with India doesn’t mean it is India. The message is clear. Criticise BJP at your own peril.”
The occupied Kashmir politicians were originally held under a law that allowed a maximum of six months in prison and their detention was about to expire.
“The law does not allow preventive detention beyond six months. So they had to be either released or booked under PSA,” said one government official on condition of anonymity.
“Several other regional leaders who have also completed six months under preventive detention are likely to be booked under PSA,” a second official said.
The home ministry in a reply before the parliament on Thursday said 389 people in occupied Kashmir were already booked under PSA since August last year. Some of those detained have been put under house arrest, while others have been taken elsewhere.
A strict lockdown and communications blackout has been in place in occupied Kashmir since August 5, 2019, when the Indian government unilaterally stripped the region of its special status.
Last month, India’s Supreme Court rebuked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for shutting down Internet and telecommunications in the occupied region. On January 25, limited mobile data services and Internet were temporarily restored in the region.
