Peoples Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti on Monday staged a rare protest flagging the plight of separatist prisoners and asked chief minister Omar Abdullah to prod the Centre to release them or return them to jails in Kashmir.
Omar advised her to go to Delhi with her demand, saying that protesting in Kashmir would serve no purpose unless the objective was to “do it just for show”.
The hundreds, mainly separatists, arrested under the stringent Public Safety Act or the anti-terror law UAPA are mostly detained outside Jammu and Kashmir. Their families have long been complaining of their state of health.
Mehbooba and her supporters carried placards and chanted “Bail, not jail” as they tried to march from their party headquarters in Srinagar to Lal Chowk. Police were deployed to prevent the march, which also featured slogans against the ruling National Conference.
Omar’s government has no say in law-and-order issues or the detention policy but the PDP and other political parties have been trying to corner it on such matters, accusing it of complicity with the Centre.
“We are here for the thousands of prisoners languishing in different jails, both in Jammu and Kashmir and outside. Many of them are innocent,” Mehbooba, a former chief minister, said.
She advised Omar to lead a joint delegation to Union home minister Amit Shah and seek the prisoners’ release or return to Kashmir’s jails. She also asked Omar to send a ministerial inspection team to jails outside Jammu and Kashmir.
Mehbooba said the families of most of the detainees hadn’t got the money to fight the legal battle.
“Whether it’s our leaders, the elders of the Jamaat-e-Islami, or Shabir Shah or others — when they suffer from serious illness, their families have to make desperate efforts to ensure their treatment,” she said.
Hours later, Omar said that protesting in Srinagar would not yield results, and that security decisions are taken in Delhi.
“We are all worried about this issue, but nothing will be achieved by doing it in Srinagar,” he said. “So it would be better if they go to Delhi and meet the home minister.”
Omar said his government had already raised the issue with the Centre.
“We put these things in front of the home minister in Delhi because the decision has to be made from there. If we have to do it just for show, then do it here,” he added.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the Hurriyat Conference chairman and Kashmir’s chief cleric, urged all individuals and groups in Jammu and Kashmir to unite and flag the suffering of Kashmiri prisoners.
“Playing politics even on this humanitarian issue will be a shame,” he posted on X.
All the political parties in Kashmir have been calling for the release of political detainees, but public protests have been rare for fear ofthe government.