Srinagar: People’s Conference chairman Sajjad Ahmad Lone was released on Friday after a detention of almost one year. He was put into detention on August 5, 2019.
Lone broke the news on his Twitter handle, writing, “Finally [five] days short of a year I have been officially informed that I am a free man.”
Lone was first detained at MLA hostel Srinagar for six months, then shifted to the Church Lane guest house.
Lone was among scores of political leaders including three former chief ministers – Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti – who were arrested on 5 August last year, when the central government scrapped Articles 370 and 35A and bifurcated the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.
Besides the political leadership, hundreds of political, social workers and people from different walks of life were arrested and put in various jails and detention centres, both within and outside Jammu and Kashmir.
Many persons detained on August 5 last year are still under detention. Some of them have been detained under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA), which gives the government power to detain a person without trial for six months.

KR Desk