No ground for fresh detention of Masarat Alam: J&K government

JAMMU: Virtually rejecting demands for re-arrest of separatist leader Masarat Alam by several quarters including BJP, the Jammu and Kashmir government tonight said there was no ground for his fresh detention.

"Without charges, how can you put someone behind bars," a senior official of the state home department said.

"Will it happen by their saying? If there are charges, then it can happen", he told PTI when asked about the demands by BJP and others for fresh detention of Alam.

"There is rule of law in the country and we have to go by the direction of the court. His (Masarat Alam's) PSA has been quashed by the courts and not even a single order of PSA has withstood (in the court of law)," he said.

The release of the mastermind behind the 2008-10 stone-pelting agitation in Srinagar has created a strain among the state's ruling alliance partners BJP and PDP with the saffron virtually threatening to have a rethink on the tie-up.

The state unit of BJP had yesterday sought Alam's re-arrest, saying his post-release conduct and statements are fresh inputs to consider his fresh detention under PSA.