KL Report
SRINAGAR
The Home Ministry on Thursday directed to the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed-led PDP government in Jammu and Kashmir asking it to pursue all 27 cases against recently released Hurriyat leader Masarat Alam Bhat.
The ministry according to reports also told J&K government to have close surveillance on Masarat Alam.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh informed Parliament that fresh detention orders for separatist Masarat Alam were not issued because there were no new grounds for detaining him as mandated by a Supreme Court ruling.
In a statement to both Houses, he said though Masarat had been released, surveillance would continue on him and his associates in the interest of public order.
The remarks came on a day Opposition parties in Parliament upped the ante against the Government over reports that the Jammu and Kashmir government was planning to release 800 more separatists and sought to know if the state’s Governor has mentioned this in his report to the Centre.
The Home Minister said, “My government will not compromise with national security at any cost. For us any government, whether in alliance or not, that is not our priority. Our priority is country and its security. You should understand this intention of ours.”
The Home Minister said he was not satisfied with the official version that the state government sent to his Ministry earlier on this subject.
BJP is in an alliance with PDP in sharing power in the state after the state threw a fractured verdict in the results of assembly polls declared in December.
BJP has said that there should be no further release of political prisoners in Jammu and Kashmir without proper consultations between the two allies.
