Masarat Released By Court Orders, Re-arrested Immediately

SRINAGAR: Senior Hurriyat leader and Jammu and Kashmir Muslim League chief, Masarat Alam, was re-arrested by police in Jammu jail premises Tuesday, moments after authorities released him following court orders.

His re-arrest was condemned by the Hurriyat groups as well as Bhat's Jammu and Kashmir Muslim League which also alleged that their leader has been taken to some unknown destination.

"After Jammu jail authorities freed Masarat Alam following the orders of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, a police party however, rearrested him and took him away to some unknown destination," said a party spokesman.

A senior J&K Police officer, wishing anonymity, said Alam's freedom will be a "threat to law and order" in the Valley, "We have clear orders from the government not to release him," he said.

Alam, who was arrested on April 17 for waving Pakistani flags in a rally in Srinagar to welcome veteran Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani from Delhi, was shifted to Jammu's Kot Balwal jail after being booked under Public Safety Act (PSA) onApril 23.

An FIR under sections 13 of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 120-B, 147, 341, 336, 427 RPC was also registered in Budgam Police Station against Alam and other separatist leaders.

Alam's detention under PSA was, however, quashed by the state high court on August 21 on a petition seeking his release.

Alam, who is seen as a likely successor to Geelani, spearheaded the 2010 summer agitation in Kashmir valley during which over 125 civilians, mostly teenagers, were killed in retaliatory action by forces to control protests.

A huge controversy had erupted after the chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed government released Alam on March 9 this year, just days after taking reins of the Peoples Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government in the state.

Despite Sayeed's promise of giving political space to the Hurriyat, the government has cracked down on separatist groups in the Valley, especially those affiliated with Geelani who has been kept under house-arrest for nearly five months now.