PDP’s Sartaj Madni released from detention

Sartaj Madni, senior People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader and maternal uncle of PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, was released from detention on Saturday

Sartaj Madni, senior People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader and maternal uncle of PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, was released from detention on Saturday.

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His release comes a day after Mufti received invitation for an all parties meeting scheduled to be held next week and chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Madni, who hails from South Kashmir, is a senior party leader.

Officials said Madni, who was under preventive detention at MLA hostel, was released on Saturday afternoon. They said a team of the Anantnag police is on its way to Srinagar to take him home.

“The police team will hand him over to his family in the South Kashmir district,” officials added.

“Relieved that PDP’s Sartaj Madni has finally been released after six months of wrongful detention. It’s high time that the Government of India releases political prisoners and other detainees rotting in jails in and outside J&K. A raging pandemic should have been reason enough to free them,” tweeted Mufti.

Soon after revocation of Article 370 in 2019 Sartaj Madni was detained from his house and moved to SKICC, Srinagar. Last year, Madni was shifted to a government house and released then again arrested on December 21 last year, a day ahead of the counting of votes of the District Development Council elections.

Several leaders of the PDP and the National Conference, including Nayeem Akhtar, Peer Mansoor and Hilal Ahmad Lone, were detained that day. They were shifted to the MLA hostel, from where they were gradually released later.

(With agency inputs)