Ex-PDP MLA, trade leader released from preventive detention in Kashmir

The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Tuesday released a former PDP legislator and a trade leader from preventive detention, officials said.

With the release of the two leaders, the number of people now under detention at the MLA hostel is 15. The hostel has been temporarily converted into a subsidiary jail.

Former PDP MLA from Wachi in south Kashmir Aijaz Ahmad Mir and trader leader Shakeel Ahmed Qalandar, who is former president of the Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir, were released two days after the administration had released four politicians from preventive custody at the MLA hostel on Sunday.

The released politicians on Sunday comprised three from the National Conference and one from the PDP.

These leaders were part of preventive detention carried out on mainstream politicians, activists and trade leaders after August 5 last year when the Centre withdrew the special status of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state 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, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and Jammu amd Kashmir People's Conference leader Sajjad Gani Lone.

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 on September 17 and further renewed for a period of three months on December 16.