Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir administration Friday extended by another three months the detention of former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti under the Public Safety Act (PSA). Mufti has spent almost a year in confinement, first at a government guesthouse and then at her residence, since the August 5 clampdown on J&K’s political leadership following the revocation of its special status. Mufti, who remains one of the last mainstream political leaders booked and detained under PSA, was first placed under preventive detention and in February, she was charged under the PSA with former CMs Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah. Both Omar and Farooq were released in March.

Earlier in the day, People’s Conference chairman and former state minister Sajad Lone was released from house arrest, almost a year after he was detained in the wake of the abrogation of Article 370. The Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978 is a preventive detention law, under which a person is taken into custody to prevent him or her from acting in any manner that is prejudicial to “the security of the state or the maintenance of the public order”. It is very similar to the National Security Act that is used by other state governments for preventive detention.

The PSA allows for detention of a person without a formal charge and without trial. It can be slapped on a person already in police custody; on someone immediately after being granted bail by a court; or even on a person acquitted by the court. Detention can be up to two years.

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