SRINAGAR: The Sheri Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC), situated on the Dal Lake in Srinagar, which has hosted several international conferences and oath-taking ceremonies in J&K, has now turned into a makeshift jail.
Around 40 mainstream leaders are lodged at SKICC after being detained. Among the detained mainstream leaders lodged at SKICC include Ali Mohammad Sagar, Altaf Kaloo, Ishfaq Jabbar, Ali Mohammad Dar and Salman Sagar of National Conference, Naeem Akhtar, Khurshid-ul-Alam, Mohammad Ashraf Mir, Waheed Parra and Aijaz Ahmad Mir of PDP, Sajjad Gani Lone, Junaid Mattu (Mayor), Sheikh Imran (Deputy Mayor), Imran Reza Ansari and Yasir Reshi of Peoples Conference and Kashmir Peoples Movement (JKPM) president Shah Faesal.
Sources said Kashmir-based former legislators Ghulam Hassan Mir and Hakeem Yasin are also lodged at the SKICC.
The leaders are lodged in different rooms at SKICC, which has over 100 rooms.
Sources said the detained mainstream leaders are allowed to interact with one another.
“They can meet each other in a room,” they said.
However, the family members of many claimed that they have not been allowed to meet the leaders.
Mushtaq Ahmad, the brother-in-law of Yasir Reshi, said they have not been allowed to meet him. He said even on the Eid, the family members were not allowed to meet Reshi.
The family of ex PDP MLA Mohammad Ashraf Mir too said the same thing. “He was arrested 10 days back and since then we have not been allowed to meet him,” said a relative waiting at the main gate of SKICC.