J&K activist Khurram Parvez booked under PSA after court orders release

A sessions court in Srinagar ordered the release of human rights activist Khurram Parvez, who was taken into preventive detention for allegedly posing an imminent threat of breach of peace, but he was later allegedly booked under the Public Safety Act.

The court had on Tuesday stated that the executive official, who ordered the activist’s detention, had not followed necessary procedures including failure to adequately explain the grounds for his detention.

Meanwhile, the activist was on Wednesday booked under the PSA and shifted to Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu, JK Coalition of Civil Societies, an organisation run by the activist, claimed.

Parvez was arrested on September 16 and placed in administrative detention in a jail in Kupwara for allegedly posing an imminent threat of breach of peace.

Repeated attempts to contact District Magistrate Srinagar Farooq Ahmad Lone, who is vested with the authority to issue detention order under PSA, did not fructify.

Amnesty International India criticised the re-arrest of the activist.

‘Detaining a person right after he is released, without any intention to charge him or bring him to trial, amounts to using a revolving door of persecution,’ Aakar Patel, executive director, Amnesty International India, said in a statement.

‘This kind of arbitrary use of the law suggests that the Jammu and Kashmir police is determined to lock up Khurram Parvez at any cost,’ he said.