Masrat Alam's release is failure of prosecution: Ashok Pandit

Describing Jammu and Kashmir High Court's decision to grant bail to Masrat Alam as failure of the prosecution, veteran filmmaker and social activist Ashok Pandit on Wednesday urged the state government to hire best lawyer to send the separatist leader back to jail.

"It is failure of the prosecution. The state missionary has failed to prove a terrorist as terrorist in the courts of law. If such a known terrorist gets out of jail on bail then nothing can be tragic than this," Pandit told ANI.

He further termed the release of Alam as a sad news for the security forces who fight every day and lose their lives.

"I appeal the state government and state missionary to hire best possible legal luminary, the lawyer and see to it that the terrorist goes back to jail otherwise the confidence of common man will go down," he added.

Echoing similar sentiments, Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) leader Harsh Dev Singh alleged that the government has not contested the case with all seriousness.

"The government never wanted to arrest him. It was the media and public because of which he was arrested. This decision is in pursuance of the soft separatism of the government," Singh told ANI.

Singh further said that if elements like Alam are given open space and the government does not take stern action against them then the situation would continue to deteriorate in the valley.

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court earlier in the day directed Mehbooba Mufti-led government to immediately release Alam from preventive custody.

A bench of Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar quashed Alam's detention after hearing his counsel Mian Abdul Qayoom and the state counsel.

Alam, who has been languishing in jail for the past six years on charges of fomenting trouble and posing a threat to public safety in the Valley, was booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) following the 2010 violent unrest.