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AAP MP Sanjay Singh takes part in a protest outside the Press Club against the arrest of MLA Mehraj Malik under the Public Safety Act (PSA), in Jammu on Wednesday. (Source: ANI Photo)
The Jammu and Kashmir police on Thursday prevented Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh and MLA Imran Hussain from addressing the press in Srinagar and barred them from coming out of the government guesthouse where they were staying.
Police also prevented National Conference president and Srinagar MP Farooq Abdullah from meeting Singh at the guesthouse, prompting Singh to try scaling the gate.
Singh arrived in the Valley to address a press conference and organise a sit-in protest against the arrest of AAP’s Doda legislator Mehran Malik, who was booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) after he faced a series of FIRs.
“Dictatorship is at its peak. I am in Srinagar at this moment. Raising one’s voice for rights and protesting in a democracy is our constitutional right,” Singh posted on X with a video showing him trying to open the gate of the guesthouse. “Today, there was a press conference and sit-in in Srinagar against the illegal arrest of Mehraj Malik, but the government guesthouse has been turned into a police camp. I am not being allowed to leave the guest house with Imran Hussain and companions.”
Singh also posted a video showing him scaling the entrance gate of the guesthouse as Abdullah appeared from the other side. “I want to greet him, and they are not allowing,” Abdullah can be heard saying in the video. To this, Singh replies, “They don’t allow us to meet anybody, they don’t allow us to move out. Whatever they can do, they are doing.”
Continuing the conversation, Abdullah says, “They have become the masters.”
In his post of X, Singh said, “It is a very sad thing that Dr Farooq Abdullah ji, who has been the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir many times, came to meet me at the government guesthouse upon hearing the news of my house arrest by the police, but he was not allowed to meet me. If this is not dictatorship, then what is it?”
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Chief Minister Omar Abdullah questioned under which law Singh has been stopped from moving out.
“A Rajya Sabha member has been detained legally. Under which law have you detained him? Have you issued any preventive detention order against him?” Omar asked. “Those who are doing it should think over it.”
Omar said that Singh is “not claiming” that he has been put under house arrest, but that is the reality, and only those “who are responsible for this decision” can say why he has been detained.
He also questioned Malik’s detention under the PSA, saying that if there was some issue about his behaviour, it should have been taken up with the Assembly Secretariat or the Speaker of the House.
Bashaarat Masood is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express. He has been covering Jammu and Kashmir, especially the conflict-ridden Kashmir valley, for two decades. Bashaarat joined The Indian Express after completing his Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University in Kashmir. He has been writing on politics, conflict and development. Bashaarat was awarded with the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2012 for his stories on the Pathribal fake encounter. ... Read More
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