J&K admin shifts 33 political detainees to Srinagar hostel

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Sunday shifted 33 political detenues, including JKPP president and former minister Sajjad Lone and former PDP minister Naeem Akhtar, from Centaur Lake View Hotel near Dal Lake — where they had been lodged since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5 — to the MLA Hostel in Srinagar’s Maulana Azad Road which has better heating facilities, to cope with the harsh weather conditions in the upcoming winter season.
A JKPP spokesperson alleged that party chief Sajjad Lone was manhandled by police during the shift after he and some other detenues, including PDP’s Waheed Parray, protested against the move, refusing to stay at the MLA Hostel because of “unhygienic conditions” at the facility. Officials, however, refuted the allegation.
The Centaur hotel, owned by the Indian Tourism Development Corporation, has submitted a bill of more than Rs 3 crore to the home department for over 100 days of boarding and lodging of the detenues. The administration refused to pay this since the facility had already been declared a subsidiary jail. Instead, the authorities sanctioned a daily fee of Rs 800 per room as compared to Rs 5,000 charged by the hotel.
The MLA Hostel has been declared a subsidiary jail by the J&K home department to temporarily house the political detenues and is being looked after by the government hospitality team and protocol department. Authorities have installed CCTV cameras in and around the premises for security, said an official.
Over 40 political leaders and prominent social activists had been detained at the hotel, which was declared as a subsidiary jail on August 5 when the Centre abrogated Article 370, paving the way for the bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh. Since then, all detenues were being provided with facilities mentioned under the jail manual. Some of them were later released while the remaining were shifted to the hostel on Sunday.
Last Thursday, former J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti was also shifted to a government-owned VIP bungalow at Maulana Azad Road from the tourist hut situated at the foothills of Zaberwan range where she had been detained earlier.