BJP IN KASHMIR ~ BUNTLINE

BJP IN KASHMIR

Masarat is the first top separatist leader to be released by the new government. It came despite voices if protest in main coalition partner BJP, senior BJP leader, Bali Ram Bhagat said.

Mufti had said,"Dissent in democracy makes the system vibrant and dynamic... Democracy is battle if ideas and it should not be held hostage to the agreements or disagreements on issues."

Masarat, in the valley for issuing protest calendars during the 2010 unrest, was arrested and Rs 10 lakh award for information about his whereabouts. He had been kept in one or the other jail on the basis of detention orders issued by district magistrate under the PSA, notwithstanding the court quashing the orders from time to time.

The Supreme Court in 2013 barred his preventive detention without the state government giving him a week's time to act against any such proposed section.

The separatist leader was" the chief architect" of the anti-national protests of 2010, Omar said the detention had ensured peace in the valley even after Afzal Guru's execution and allowed for smooth election." whichever away I look at it, Alam's detention saved lives," Omar, former chief minister J&K, said.

The history of Alam's detention under PSA is as follows:

* Oct 2, 1990: Detained under PSA for the first time; released in November 1991.

* 1993: Detained under PSA on similar grounds. He was jailed for more than four years, during which time PSA was invoked repeatedly to keep him in jail. He was released in February 1997.

* Sep 1997: Within six months, he was picked up again, and kept in jail for three years, until May 2000.

* Jan 2001: The so-called “revolving door detention” caught up; he was kept in jail until August 2003.

* Oct 7, 2003: He was picked up again, and detained until July 2005.

* Apr 22, 2007: Alam was detained for the sixth time and, for the first time, he challenged his detention in the J&K High Court. On October 1, 2007, the High Court quashed the detention.

* Jan 16, 2008: Seventh detention under PSA began. On May 23, the HC quashed the order and Alam was released on May 27.

* Sep 5, 2008: Barely three months later, Alam was put in preventive detention for the eighth time. The grounds were similar to the two earlier orders that had been quashed by the court. On December 27, the HC quashed this detention too, and directed the government to release Alam. The government cited another case filed in Rainawari police station to keep him in custody.

* Jan 21, 2009: A day before Alam got bail from the Additional Sessions Judge, Srinagar, the government used PSA against him for the ninth time. Alam was moved to Udhampur jail. On May 25, the HC quashed the order.

* June 9, 2009: The tenth detention order was issued and Alam was sent to Rajouri jail. On August 18, the HC quashed his detention, but Alam was booked under fresh charges. He was released after the court gave him bail.

* Feb 22, 2010: As a result of the eleventh preventive detention order, Alam was sent to Kathua jail. On April 8, the HC quashed the order, and he was released.

On October 18, a case was registered against Alam under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The next month, three other cases were registered at three different police stations.

* Dec 11, 2010: Alam was taken into preventive custody “on the apprehension” that he “might obtain bail and continue to indulge in anti-national activities”. He was sent to Udhampur jail. On June 10, 2011, the HC quashed the detention order. Alam was released on July 30, but was immediately re-arrested by the Counter Intelligence Unit for two cases under UAPA.

* Aug 4, 2011: Detention No. 13 under PSA, which was quashed by the HC on December 23. The court said the district magistrate had not applied his mind — the grounds of detention had been copied adverbatim from the police dossier, and were materially the same as those in the previous quashed order.

* Dec 30, 2011: Order No. 14 under PSA was issued, which the HC scrapped on June 2, 2012. On July 31, the date set by the HC for his release, Alam was arrested by Counter Intelligence, Jammu.

* Aug 3, 2012: The fifteenth detention order under PSA was issued, which the HC quashed on October 19. He was released on October 22, but re-arrested the same day in connection with another case under UAPA.

* Oct 30, 2012: Sixteenth detention under PSA; government called him “an incorrigible secessionist”.

* Sep 23, 2014: The last detention order was issued.

In a petition filed before the Supreme Court in 2012, Alam’s uncle Farooq Ahmed Bhat pleaded that Alam had spent 12 of the 15 years from 1990 to 2005 in preventive detention, during which period, “the State could not conduct a single successful trial against him… or attribute a single act of illegality to him other than conjectures and far-fetched allegations”. Despite orders from the High Court, Alam was slapped with repeated orders of detention “in order to continue to keep him incarcerated”, Bhat said.