Jammu and Kashmir HC asks state govt to release separatist leader Masarat Alam, again

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Tuesday asked the state government to release separatist leader Masarat Alam, who has been in jail since April this year. [caption id=“attachment_2565150” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Masarat Alam. AFP[/caption] According to TV reports, the court quashed Alam’s detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA), however, they also expressed the opinion that he might be arrested again in the next couple of days. Alam had been arrested on 17 April this year for waving Pakistani flags and chanting anti-national slogans in a separatist rally in Srinagar organised by hardline Hurriyat Conference factions to welcome Syed Ali Shah Geelani from New Delhi. He was shifted to Jammu province’s Kot Balwal jail after being booked under Public Safety Act (PSA) on 23 April. His detention order was quashed by the high court on 21 August, on a petition seeking his release. However, Alam was re-arrested on 1 September by police in Jammu. Alam, who is considered to be a close aide of senior separatist leader Geelani, spearheaded the 2010 summer agitation in the Kashmir Valley. A huge controversy had erupted after the Mufti Muhammad Sayeed government released Alam on 9 March this year, just days after taking reins of the PDP-BJP coalition government in the state. With inputs from PTI