Prominent Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez has been shifted to Kot Bhalwal prison in Jammu, even as his family and lawyers said they have not received an official copy of the order of detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
The Jammu and Kashmir PSA, 1978 allows the state to detain a person up to six months without trial. Activists describe it “draconian”, while the Amnesty International previously called it a “lawless law” because of its alleged arbitrary use by the government.
Parvez (39), who is the chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, and the programme coordinator of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, was booked under the PSA on Wednesday, a day after a Srinagar court ordered his release from preventive detention. He was moved to the Jammu jail around midnight.
Read: Rights activist Khurram Parvez detained even after court orders release
Police have not officially confirmed the slapping of the PSA on the internationally-renowned activist, who lost a leg in a 2004 bomb blast while on election-monitoring duty in north Kashmir.
Last week, Parvez was shifted to Kupwara sub-jail after being lodged for a day in a Srinagar prison. Then, on Tuesday evening, principal district and sessions judge, Srinagar, Rashid Ali Dar, ordered his release and said the earlier order for his detention was not “in accordance with the law”.
{{/usCountry}}Last week, Parvez was shifted to Kupwara sub-jail after being lodged for a day in a Srinagar prison. Then, on Tuesday evening, principal district and sessions judge, Srinagar, Rashid Ali Dar, ordered his release and said the earlier order for his detention was not “in accordance with the law”.
{{/usCountry}}Parvez’s family and lawyers claimed that the activist, after being released from the sub-jail following the court order, was detained for over three hours in Kupwara police station. From there, he was shifted to Kothi Bagh police station in Srinagar in the wee hours of Wednesday. His family and lawyers were not given a reason behind his continued detention.