While terming the slapping of PSA over Masarat Alam Bhat and shifting him to the Kotbilwal Jail as “worst example of the state terrorism”, Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani has called for peaceful protest demonstration after the Friday prayers on 24 April and complete shutdown on 25 April against this act.In a statement to KNS he claimed that Masarat Alam is facing threat to his life in the Kotbilwal Jail “as the atmosphere of that Jail is very hostile for the pro-freedom people and a detainee of that jail named as Sanaullah Ranjhi has recently been killed there.”“There is no moral or legal justification in arresting and slapping of PSA upon the Masarat Sahab. Indian TV channels run a media trial against him and the under pressure Mufti led government surrendered before the BJP and detained Masarat Alam in Kotbilwal Jail under the black law PSA. This is the grave human rights violation and the human rights organizations should take a serious notice of this,” he said.
Geelani added that CM Mufti Mohammad Sayed had made huge claims before and after the election and tried a lot to prove himself a pro-Kashmir politician. “But all his claims like ‘the battle of ideas’ and ‘Goli Nahi Boli’ proved to be a hoax and he withdrew all his demands like the issue of political prisoners, return back of power projects, rollback of AFSPA, the issues of west Pakistan refugee and Kashmiri Pandits,”he alleged.Geelani recalled that at the time of the formation of coalition government with the BJP, Mufti promised to shift all the detainees from the outside jails to the Valley prisons. “But today by shifting Masarat Alam to the Kotbilwal jail Jammu he proved that all the decisions come from Nagpur and he plays the role of a facilitator of these decisions,” the Hurriyat (G) chairman claimed.
He expressed his deep concern about the safety of the Masarat and said that the environment of the Kotbilwal jail is in no way favorable for him. “He can be attacked and killed in that jail. This jail has witnessed issues like that in the past and Mufti government has actually thrown Masarat Alam into a death trap,” he rued.