SRI NAGAR: After being released on the orders of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court, hard-line separatist Masarat Alam was on Tuesday rearrested from premises of the Jammu jail where he was lodged and shifted to an unknown location.
“The Public Safety Act (PSA) invoked against Masarat was quashed by the High Court recently. We went to the Kot Balwal jail in Jammu today(Tuesday) and produced a copy of the court order before the jail authorities. The jail authorities freed Masarat but rearrested him,” said Mohammad Rafiq Ganai, a spokesperson of Masarat’s Muslim League party, told Express, adding, he had been shifted to an unknown location after the arrest.
“We have not been informed about the place where he has been shifted to. We are worried about his safety as we fear the authorities can do anything to him,” he said.
On August 21, a High Court Bench of Justice Hasnain Masoodi had quashed Masarat’s detention under the controversial law and ordered his release.
Masarat was arrested on April 17 under different RPC Sections, including 121 (waging of war) for hoisting a Pakistani flag and chanting slogans supporting Pakistan, Hafiz Saeed and LeT during a rally to welcome Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani in Srinagar on his arrival from New Delhi on April 15.
The spokesperson said the Muslim League’s legal aid cell would meet on Wednesday to chalk out a legal strategy for Masarat’s release. “We would have moved court but for the strike in Srinagar today(Tuesday),” he said.
While invoking the PSA against Masarat, the government had termed him a “threat to the sovereignty of the country”.
“The activities of Masarat are against the sovereignty of India. If the accused were given the concession of bail, it shall cause a threat to the sovereignty and integrity of India,” the government had said while opposing his bail plea.
The government had said Masarat was a habitual offender with 27 cases registered against him in different police stations across the state.
Masarat was released in March after languishing in prison for over four years for spearheading the six-month-long summer unrest in the Valley in 2010.