People’s Democratic Party returns to soft separatism

Main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has come to the aid of arrested militant commander-turned secessionist leader Masarat Alam, who was the architect of the recent ‘Quit Kashmir’ movement.

“Holding of political prisoners such as Masarat Alam does not augur well for the reconciliation process the [Centre’s] interlocutors have started,” PDP president Mehbooba Mufti told Dileep Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and MM Ansari on Monday.

Masarat, the 39-year-old general secretary of Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s Hurriyat Conference, gave sleepless nights to police and security agencies by leading the agitation from underground.

Police had named him in at least a dozen FIRs relating to arson, attempt to murder and waging a war against the state before he was arrested from a hideout at Telbal on the outskirts of Srinagar on October 18. 

Last week, the Jammu and Kashmir government slapped Public Safety Act (PSA) on Masarat and shifted him to Jammu’s Kot Bilwal Jail. Under PSA, a man can be jailed for two years without trail or bail.

A former Hizbullah commander, Masarat was slapped with PSA seven times before he was released in June after 21 months of detention for leading another agitation.