Separatists detained
Almost all the separatist leaders have been detained and at least eight prominent among them have been booked under PSA. They have been subsequently shifted to outside jails. The number of lower rung activists or simple protestors, without any party affiliation, detained or booked runs in hundreds.
Asiya Andrabi too met the same fate after she took out some protests and even managed to address people at Jamia Masjid.
One particular trait in their hunt of separatists has been their involvement at ground level. Those leaders who participated on ground were arrested and those who restricted their activities to press statements were spared.
Shabir Shah, Nayeem Khan, Mohammad Saleem Nanaji, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, Fareeda Behanji, Zamrooda Habib, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, Sheikh Mushtaq and others were arrested, booked and thrown in the cells as they tried to work on ground from attempting to organise protests to participating in funeral prayers.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who is more often under house arrest, has been altogether shifted from his house. After his arrest, Geelani has been subjected to complete isolation from general public. His son can just meet him for one hour after five days of his untraced detention. His contact with outside world has been completely cut off.
Undeclared Curfews
One of the improvisations in recent months in administration has been clamping of undeclared curfews. The reason they are not announced, People say is to get away from international glare.
Wahid Khan a College lecturer said, “They want to impose every sort of curfew and still claim in media that just some restrictions were imposed.”
“All the ingredients of curfew are present in their version of so called security restrictions but still it doesn’t qualify to be a curfew. Same must be applied to Shoot at Sight order,” he further added.
Legal validity of security measures
Indian constitution explicitly gives right to freedom of speech and expression and right to assemble peaceably and without arms. In the aftermath of Shopian incident, the rights were blown to smithereens.
Senior advocate and president High Court Bar Association, Mia Qayoom says that the brute security measures have no provision in Indian constitution. “They can restrict the assembly of five or more persons after imposing Section 144, but there is no provision of undeclared curfews.”
Legal luminaries agree that the government cannot restrict the movement of people by not declaring curfew. “It has to be either curfew or no curfew and no term like undeclared curfew exists anywhere in legal books,” says Qayoom.
Coming down heavily on the administration, Qayoom says that same is the case with house arrests. “For detaining a person, either you have to take him to a jail or under public safety act, his house has to be declared as sub-jail paving way for his detention in his house.”
