SRINAGAR: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, besides two political stalwarts from the National Conference and its arch-rival PDP, were booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) by the administration on Thursday, officials said.
Sources said Srinagar Deputy Magistrate Shahid Iqbal Choudhary issued the orders for booking the two former CMs on Thursday evening, barely hours before their six-month-long “preventive detention” was to come to an end.
A magistrate accompanied by a police officer arrived at Hari Nivas where 49-year-old Omar has been detained since August 5.
He was handed over a warrant issued under the PSA, a law which was enacted by his grandfather Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah in 1978 initially to check timber smuggling.
Similarly, the magistrate and a police officer visited Mehbooba at the government accommodation, which had been converted into a subsidiary jail, and was handed over the dossier.
National Conference general secretary and former minister Ali Mohammed Sagar, who wields a support base in downtown city, and senior PDP leader Sartaj Madani were also served with a PSA notice public order by the authorities.
Madani is the maternal uncle of former CM Mehbooba Mufti.
Both were booked under PSA on Wednesday evening but the order was served to them on Thursday at the MLA hostel Srinagar, where they were under detention.
Under PSA, authorities can detain a person for six months without trial. The detention can be extended to two years.
Autocratic, says Iltija
Mebhooba’s daughter Iltija tweeted, “Slapping the draconian PSA on two ex J&K CMs is expected from an autocratic regime that books 9-year-olds for seditious remarks."