SRINAGAR: The arrest of the two sons of Mohammad Ashraf Sehrie has triggered a sort of serious controversy in Kashmir. After Mehbooba Mufti, PDP president, tweeted about the arrest, the police in Kupwara had to issue a correction asserting they were not booked under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act.
Seharie’s sons – Mujahid Sehrai and Rashid Sehra, were arrested from their Srinagar residence last night. They were basically arrested by Kupwara police for a case that was registered against a score odd people on May 6, when Seharie was lowered in his grave at Teakipora. Sehraie was in jail when he died and the family had alleged serious compromise with his health by the jail authorities.
Hours after the arrest, Mehbooba Mufti issued two tweets. One of them was about Sehraie’s sons: “PSA is GOI’s go to method for every problem,” she said. “Latest example being Ashraf Sehrai’s sons who lost their father in custody due to inadequate medical care & have been arrested under PSA. In rest of India dead are being ill-treated but in Kashmir its the living who are made to suffer.”
PSA is GOI’s go to method for every problem. Latest example being Ashraf Sehrai’s sons who lost their father in custody due to inadequate medical care & have been arrested under PSA. In rest of India dead are being ill treated but in Kashmir its the living who are made to suffer
— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) May 16, 2021
The tweet started getting attention. An hours later, Kupwara police responded to the tweet. “Both Sons of Late Ashraf Sehrai & Others were arrested for raising Anti National slogans during Sehrai’s funeral. They haven’t been booked under PSA,” the Kupwara police said. “People are appealed not to pay heed to rumors.”
Both Sons of Late Ashraf Sehrai & Others were arrested for raising Anti National slogans during Sehrai's funeral. They haven’t been booked under PSA.
People are appealed not to pay heed to rumors. @JmuKmrPolice @KashmirPolice @DIGBaramulla @DrGVSundeep_IPS— DISTRICT POLICE KUPWARA. (@KupwaraCops) May 16, 2021
Half an hour later, Peoples Conference chairman, Sajad Lone reacted, angrily. “And y do u have to do that. Which society will condone ur actions,” Lone wrote on Twitter, now the only information highway on earth. “They lost their father who died while being in govt custody. What r u competing for—- ferocity. Point taken. Yes u do come across as ferocious, Cruel and Ugly. Now Can we have an end to this Rambo culture.”
The two sons of Sehraie are reportedly in Kupwara. Efforts to reach the family failed.
Sajjad Lone and Mehbooba Mufti, it may be recalled here, were first to react to Sehrie’s death in the jail. They were highly critical of the administration’s failure in extending him medical facilities in jail.
Later in the evening, Prof Saifuddin Soz, former central government minister and PCC Chief issued a brief statement.
“It is unfortunate that former Jamaat-e-Islami leader, late Ashraf Sehrai’s two sons have been arrested by the police in connection with their involvement in pro-freedom and provocative slogans that had been raised in the funeral procession of late Sehrai on 6th May at Tekkipora Sogam, Kupwara,” the statement said. “Some people are adamant to see Ashraf Sehrai’s sons punished for the ideas of their father. This is an obnoxious trait in the character of those who want to fight Ashraf Sehrai’s family after his demise. I reject this attitude with contempt.”
The statement further reads; “The civilized world recently got a piece of enjoyable advice from, now famous Holocaust Survivor Eddie Jaku, who rejected hate as a trait of human character. Eddie Jaku has rightly advised the world that, ‘Hate is a disease which not only destroys your enemy but you also.’”
