65-year-old PSA detainee from J-K dies in Allahabad jail

The PSA slapped on Bhat, an active member of the banned Jamaat-I-Islamia, was to end on January 9 next year.

A 65-year-old detainee, a member of the banned Jamaat-I-Islamia, booked under the stringent Public Safety Act and sent outside Jammu and Kashmir has died in a jail at Allahabad, officials said on Sunday.

Ghulam Mohammed Bhat, a resident of Kulangam in frontier district of Handwara in North Kashmir, was among hundreds of people detained under the PSA immediately after the Centre abrogated special status of J-K on August 5 and divided it into two union territories -- Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir. (HT Archive)

Ghulam Mohammed Bhat, a resident of Kulangam in frontier district of Handwara in North Kashmir, was among hundreds of people detained under the PSA immediately after the Centre abrogated special status of J-K on August 5 and divided it into two union territories -- Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.

The PSA slapped on Bhat, an active member of the banned Jamaat-I-Islamia, was to end on January 9 next year, they said.

Bhat was suffering from various ailments and breathed his last at the Naini central jail on Saturday at 4 PM, the officials said, adding his body was airlifted and brought here and handed over to the family for burial.

Two cases -- one in 2016 and another this year -- were registered against him under various sections of the law including those under the anti-terror law Unlawful (Activities) Prevention Act.

The PSA has also been slapped on former state chief minister Farooq Abdullah, who is a sitting member of Lok Sabha. He has been kept at his residence.

Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, another former chief minister, have been kept under preventive detention since August 5.