Public Safety Act cases surge again post Pahalgam, 23 held in Valley based on ‘credible intel'

The Print

4 days ago

'These arrests have been made based on information and evidence available with the force. They have been lodged in different jails of the UT of J&K,' one of the sources said.
All those booked are from the Kashmir Valley, with police records showing that the maximum number are residents of Srinagar.
New Delhi: The Jammu and Kashmir Police have booked 23 alleged overground workers under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) in the past month in the aftermath of the deadly Pahalgam attack in Kashmir, sources in the security establishment told ThePrint.
According to the source, the detentions are part of a larger crackdown in the Valley after the terror attack as intelligence inputs suggest sleeper cells of various terror outfits have been reactivated, and are relaying information on troop movements to handlers in Pakistan, bringing the threat of sporadic terror attacks back into focus.
However, authorities have yet to make any breakthrough in identifying the perpetrators.
Arrests under the PSA had decreased over the past year as a sense of normalcy returned to the Valley. However, they have surged again, with a large number of people booked under the law in just one month.
The PSA allows the police to detain any person without trial for up to two years, subject to a review every six months, 'in the case of persons acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the State'.
Moreover, 'any person acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order' can be held in administrative detention for up to one year.
Divisional commissioners or district magistrates can issue detention orders under the PSA. Moreover, the authority detaining an individual under the Act need not disclose any details about the detention.
Several people were booked under the PSA in 2019 after the abrogation of Article 370, putting pressure on local prisons. Many warrants lay unexecuted as the jails were running at full capacity.
That time, the arrests under the Act targeted those who participated in stone-hurling demonstrations and others deemed to be carrying out activities detrimental to national security.
Also Read: Orders for Pahalgam satellite images from US firm peaked two months before attack
'Only people with confirmed involvement being detained'
A senior J&K Police officer said the key difference between earlier operations and the current approach is that only individuals with confirmed involvement are being held under the PSA, unlike in the past when mass detentions were common.
'Unless and until we have confirmed input of someone's involvement, they are not being booked under the PSA or arrested. If 10 people are booked under the PSA, 100 are being released the same day after questioning to ensure that no innocent person suffers,' the officer said.
The officer added that the police are 'mindful of the need to take the public along in the fight against terror and that no innocent person should be harmed in a way that leads to alienation'.
The officer also told ThePrint that they are on high alert and a close watch is being kept on overground workers, both active and dormant, who have operated in Kashmir in recent years.
To counter this threat, the State Investigation Agency has been conducting raids across districts in the Valley, especially South Kashmir, and has rounded up over 200 individuals for questioning.
'These are people we suspect of providing logistical support to infiltrators and foreign terrorists already present in the Valley. It has been noticed that their movement has increased considerably in the past month,' the officer said.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
Also Read: J&K police, security forces on alert as Pakistan-linked sleeper cells rear head in Kashmir