Qayoom Wani too released
Srinagar, Feb 05: People’s Conference chairman Sajjad Gani Lone and PDP leader Waheed Parra, close aide of detained former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, were released from detention here on Wednesday, officials said.
After the release of Lone and Parra, 13 political leaders now remain detained at the MLA hostel here which has been temporarily converted into a subsidiary jail.
Lone and Parra walked free after being in detention for over 180 days. However, they have been placed under house-arrest at their respective residences, sources said.
Meanwhile, People’s Democratic Party leader Ab. Qayoom Wani too has been released from detention this evening. He had been arrested in August and was lodged in Central Jail Srinagar. Speaking to a local news agency, Wani said that he came out of Central Jail at 7 PM.
Wani, a former trade union leader, had contested last year’s parliament election as PDP candidate.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration had on Tuesday released two leaders — former PDP MLA from Wachi in south Kashmir Aijaz Ahmad Mir and trade leader Shakeel Ahmed Qalandar, who is former president of the Federation Chamber of Industries, Kashmir.
Since Sunday, a total of eight leaders have been released from preventive custody.
These leaders were part of preventive detention of mainstream politicians, activists and trade leaders carried out after August 05 last year when the Centre withdrew the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated it into union territories — Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.
Among the prominent leaders who are still under detention are NC leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti.
While Farooq Abdullah has been kept at his Gupkar house, his son and NC vice-president Omar Abdullah has been detained at Hari Niwas. PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, who was initially lodged at Chesmashahi huts, has been shifted to a government building in the heart of Srinagar.
The senior Abdullah was slapped with the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) on September 17 which was further renewed for a period of three months on December 16.
