Srinagar: Following a four-year period of house detention, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the chairman of Hurriyat Confrence, has sent a formal legal notice to the administration of Jammu and Kashmir led by Manoj Sinha.
In the notice, he requests his release from detention and issues a warning that he will take the matter to court if the administration does not provide a favorable response.
Since August 4, 2019, Farooq has been confined to his residence under house detention. This detention coincided with the government of India’s decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and divide the state into two union territories- JK and Ladakh.
Quoting the notice, The Indian Express reported that it was issued to JK Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta by Mirwaiz’s counsel Nazir Ahmad Ronga.
The notice reads, “You are therefore, through the medium of this legal notice, requested to lift/remove the restrictions imposed upon the movement of my client through the deployment of large contingent of security forces outside his Nigeen residence as the illegal and unauthorised detention of my client has curtailed his life & liberty guaranteed to him under Article 21 besides you are called upon not to impose restrictions upon my client to participate in religious ceremonies/activities and not to prevent him to preach his religions and to perform his religious duties particularly to participate in congregational prayers on Fridays at Jamia Masjid, Nowhatta, Srinagar.”
It further reads, “If my client finds no prompt and positive response to this legal notice, he shall be constrained and compelled to file the appropriate proceedings or writ in the competent court of jurisdiction which he has a right to do and move for the redressal of his genuine and legitimate grievances and for the protection of his fundamental rights guaranteed particularly under Article 21 and; Articles 25 to 28 of the constitution.”
Pertinently, last year, Manoj Sinha in his interview to BBC said that Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was not booked under PSA, while saying that police personnel deployed around him have been there for his protection. He told BBC that Sinha that Mirwaiz was not under house arrest and was a free man.
However, days after Manoj Sinha’s statement that ‘Mirwaiz is a free man’, the Hurriyat leader was stopped by police from leaving his residence on Friday, August 26, to offer prayers at historic Jamia Masjid in the city.
