Srinagar: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday said numerous political leaders continue to be under detention in Jammu and Kashmir “purely” for their ideology as she condoled the death of detained senior separatist leader Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai.
Deeply saddened to know about Ashraf Sehrai sahab’s sudden demise. Like him countless political prisoners & other detainees from J&K continue to be jailed purely for their ideologies & thought process. In today’s India one pays a price with his life for dissent, Mehbooba wrote on Twitter.
Sehrai, who was arrested under the Public Safety Act in July last year, died at a hospital in Jammu on Wednesday, officials said.
Sehrai, 77, a close confidant of hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, was shifted to the Government Medical College (GMC) hospital from the district jail in Udhampur after his health deteriorated on Tuesday evening, they said.
Mehboooba said the Centre should immediately release detainees.
The least GOI can do in such dangerous circumstances is to immediately release these detainees on parole so that they return home to their families, she said.
—PTI