The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Friday announced the detention of six individuals under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) for allegedly inciting “law and order disturbances” and “acts of vandalism” during a recent student protest in Sopore, Kashmir.
The protest was against a schoolteacher accused of molestation, who has since been taken into custody. Police identified the detained individuals as Umar Akbar Hajam, Salman Ahmed Shala, Altaf Ahmed Sheikh, Mubashir Ahmed Gilkar, Muzammil Mushtaq Changa, and Majid Firdous Dar. They were detained after authorization from the district magistrate, as required under the PSA, and have been jailed in Jammu’s Doda district.
All six hail from Sopore, but police clarified that none of them are students. “These miscreants were involved in attempting to disturb peace during a recent protest by students. Their activities posed a serious threat to public order and safety,” a police statement said. Authorities added that more individuals involved in the April 13 trouble are being identified for prosecution, including under the PSA.
In a warning to the public, police urged people to “stay away from unlawful activities and not to fall prey to instigation by anti-social elements.” The police have not specified the exact PSA clause under which the six have been booked. The law allows for detentions without trial for up to six months if an accused is deemed a threat to state security, with extensions of six months. Under a clause related to threats to public order, preventive detentions are allowed for up to three months, with extensions of three months.
Previously, the PSA permitted detentions without trial for up to two years. However, an amendment during a previous tenure of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in 2011 reduced the detention period to six months from two years for threats to state security, and from one year to three months for threats to public order.
