The J&K and Ladakh High Court has quashed the detention of Zahoor Ahmad Bhat. File
The J&K and Ladakh High Court has quashed the detention of Zahoor Ahmad Bhat, brother of the founder of the separatist Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), and issued his release order in Srinagar.
Also Read | SC says it is a ‘problem’ if J&K academic was suspended for appearing in Article 370 case
“There was sufficient time with the respondents to take resort to normal criminal laws, if at all they wanted to proceed against the petitioner. The unexplained delay in execution of the warrant of detention upon the petitioner renders the subjective satisfaction of the detaining authority doubtful. Consequently, the impugned order of detention has been rendered unsustainable in law… Direction is issued to the respondents to release the detenue from the preventive custody forthwith, provided he is not required in connection with any other case,” the court order, issued recently, reads.
Mr. Bhat, a resident of Kupwara, was arrested under Public Safety Act (PSA), a law that deals with preventive detention, in June 2022. Mr. Bhat’s brother Maqbool Bhat was the founder of the JKLF, seeking independence for J&K, and faced death sentence in 1984.
Mr. Bhat’s release came at a time when there is a growing demand for the release of civil society members, especially lawyers, booked under the PSA in Kashmir.
“My father advocate Nazir Ronga is on the verge of completing six months in detention, yet there has been no official statement from the police, leaving us in the dark about the true reasons for his confinement. To make matters worse, in the last three hearings the Hon’ble court has been waiting for a senior lawyer to appear on behalf of the state, but his presence remains elusive. This prolonged uncertainty is both disheartening and unjust,” Mr. Ronga’s son Umair Ronga said, in a post on the social media platform X.
Mr. Ronga, who was acting chairman of the J&K High Court Bar Association, was arrested from his home in July last year. Three senior lawyers, according to their colleagues, have been booked under PSA last year.
Senior Peoples Democratic Party leader Iltija Mufti also highlighted the “lackadaisical” approach of the administration in Mr. Ronga’s case. “What hope do lesser mortals in Kashmir booked under draconian PSA and UAPA have when Nazir Ronga ex-President J&K High Court Bar association has been wrongfully incarcerated for the past six months without even an official statement from the J&K Police? Not even appointing a lawyer to represent the state is emblematic of their lackadaisical highhandedness,” she said.
Published – January 01, 2025 10:09 pm IST
