Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, 6 others sign bonds to secure release
Moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was among seven individuals, detained following the abrogation of special status given to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370, who have signed bonds to secure their release, official sources said on Friday.
However, People’s Conference chairman Sajad Lone, PDP youth wing leader Waheed Para, and former bureaucrat-turned-politician Shah Faesal have refused to sign the bonds.
Apart from Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, two leaders of the National Conference (NC), one each from the Peoples Democratic Party and People’s Conference, and two others, whose political affiliations were not immediately revealed, signed the bonds, the sources said.
They are among 36 detainees who have been kept at the Centaur Hotel here after their detention.
The detainees, mostly politicians, were offered to be released by the Jammu and Kashmir administration on the condition that they sign the bond, which bars them from indulging in any political activity after their release, the sources said.
Unofficial estimates suggest more than a thousand people including politicians, separatists, activists and lawyers were detained after the August 5 decision of the central government.
Three former chief ministers — Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti — were among the detainees.
Some others numbering around 100 were sent to the jails outside Jammu and Kashmir.
Farooq has been detained under the stringent Public Safety Act while other politicians were mostly detained in different sections of the CrPC.
A Jammu and Kashmir administration official said individuals released after signing the bonds will not be allowed to indulge in any activities prohibited in the document.
Whoever violates the provision will have to face arrest again, the official said.
