Yasin Malik to be kept in separate cell in Jammu’s Kot Bhalwal jail: Official

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Updated: Mar 07, 2019 18:48 IST

Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik will be kept in a separate cell and will not be allowed to interact with other prisoners in Jammu’s high-security Kot Bhalwal prison, a senior official said on Thursday.

Malik, the chairperson of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), has been booked under the public safety act (PSA) and will be shifted to Kot Bhalwal jail on the outskirts of Jammu and Kashmir’s winter capital.

JKLF’s spokesperson confirmed Malik was booked under PSA, which allows for people to be held for up to two years without judicial intervention, and will be taken to Kot Bhalwal jail.

“We condemn this arbitrary arrest and use of PSA against a political leader,’’ the spokesperson said.

“Though we haven’t got any intimation or warrant of Yasin Malik being shifted to the Kot Bhalwal prison as of now but once shifted here, he will be totally segregated from other prisoners,” a top official, who did not wish to be named, said.

“He will be totally segregated and kept in a cell. He will not be kept with other prisoners. There will be no preferential treatment at all to him and he will be treated like other prisoners,” he added.

A source with the home department told the Hindustan Times that the separatist leader, if shifted to Kot Bhalwal jail, will be kept in room number 3 which has a kitchen.

The high-security jail has 510 prisoners, including 200 Pakistani and local militants, those arrested for throwing stones and detainees under the Public Safety Act (PSA), lodged in its 15 blocks.

In January this year, Jammu and Kashmir police had seized two cell phones and five pen drives seized among other things during a massive search operation. The operation was launched after three months of planning.

In December 2006, police quelled a revolt by about 300 terrorists, including some Pakistanis, after a move to shift some them outside the state sparked a stand-off.

In May 2013, Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah Ranjay was attacked inside the prison by a fellow prisoner and died later that month in a Chandigarh hospital.