GoI deliberately endangering the lives of political opponents in Kashmir: Mehbooba Mufti

Srinagar: A day after Peoples Democratic Party leader and former Minister Nayeem Akhtar was shifted to hospital after being found unconscious in a makeshift Jail, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti alleged that Government of India is deliberately endangering the lives of political opponents.

Nayeem Akhtar was arrested from his home on 21 December last month. The family had alleged that police directed him to come along with them without showing any formal order with regard to arrest.

The 68 year old PDP senior leader was found unconscious in a sub-jail room in Srinagar and was shifted to a hospital.

“Nayeem Sahab’s illegal detention in a government building ill equipped for Kashmir’s biting cold finally took a toll on his health. Going by GOIs callous & spiteful attitude it seems like they deliberately want to endanger political opponents,” Mehbooba Mufti tweeted on Friday.

A family member of Nayeem Akhtar told KNT that there was no doctor available to attend to him in the sub-jail of MLA Hostel.

Pertinently, Nayeem Akhtar was first detained in August 2019 and later booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA), and released in June 2020 last year after 10 months of detention. He was again arrested in December last year under Sections 107 and 151, with the authorities fearing “breach of public order”, just ahead of counting of votes for the District Development Council. (KNT)