Ishfaq-ul-Hassan
SRINAGAR—Jammu and Kashmir government has launched a fresh crackdown and arrested four top clerics under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) in the valley.
Two prominent religious clerics, Mushtaq Ahmad Veeri and Abdul Rashid Dawoodi were called to the police stations and detained. Later they were booked under the PSA. There are reports that they would be shifted to jails outside the Kashmir valley.
Veeri belongs to the Ahl-e-Hadith school of thought, while Dawoodi is a prominent Barelvi religious cleric and head of Tehreek-e-Soutul Auliya in South Kashmir.
On Saturday, police arrested Sarjan Barkati, a religious preacher, and booked him under the Public Safety Act (PSA). The police also arrested another influential religious leader Abdul Majeed Dar Al Madani from Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith.
Barkati’s family members told the media that they were told that he has been booked under the PSA.
Barkati was known as ‘Freedom Chacha’ because of pro-separatist speeches after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Burhan Wani in July 2016. Later he was arrested and booked under PSA. He was recently released after four years of detention. Five activists of banned Jamat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir have also been arrested.
“If normalcy as claimed by GOI has indeed returned to J&K with zero incidents of stone pelting & other activities considered anti-national, why are they booking religious scholars under draconian laws like PSA? Outrightly condemn such actions that reflect BJPs communal mindset,” tweeted Mehbooba Mufti, PDP president, and former J&K chief minister.
Under PSA, described as a lawless law by Amnesty International, a person can be jailed from three months to two years without trial or bail.
Jammu and Kashmir government has not yet commented on the fresh crackdown against clerics. Earlier, Veeri had been arrested under PSA after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. However, he was released after spending some months in jail.
“There are reports about the detention of three well-known religious clerics. The move is rather deplorable and bound to deepen the uncertainty further,” CPIM leader and PAGD spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Taragmi said.
Senior People’s Conference leader Nizamuddin Bhat appealed to the union home minister and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to reconsider the decision to arrest the clerics.
“Jammu and Kashmir has been witness to various problems and makes a special case for a just and liberal view in respect of people influenced by political discourses. In the past a reconciliatory approach had been adopted…,” he was quoted by the media.
