The Crossbill News Desk
Jammu and Kashmir AAP chief and MLA Mehraj Malik was detained on Monday, September 8, under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) for allegedly disturbing public order in Doda district, news agency PTI reported, citing officials.
This marks the first time a sitting MLA from the Union Territory has been held under the PSA, an administrative law that allows detention without charge or trial for up to two years in certain cases.
The arrest of the elected lawmaker, conducted in full view of cameras, drew sharp condemnation from the ruling National Conference, opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), People’s Conference, and others.
A video circulated showed Malik – president of the AAP’s J&K unit and elected from Doda East constituency in the 2024 Jammu and Kashmir assembly election – being forcibly dragged by policemen and bundled into a van near the Dak Bungalow in Doda after he tried to resist the arrest.
According to sources close to the AAP leader, Malik had stayed overnight at the bungalow and was preparing to visit flood-affected areas of the district when police arrested him.
Prior to his detention, Malik, who has had a contentious relationship with the district administration, called on his supporters to enforce a shutdown in Doda and warned that the administration would be held responsible for any law and order problems.
Following the arrest, a massive protest erupted in Gandoh, where Malik’s supporters chanted slogans against the administration and demanded his immediate release. Efforts to obtain comments from Deputy Commissioner Harvinder Singh were unsuccessful.
Reports said the police dossier against Malik cited 18 first information reports (FIRs) and daily diary entries to justify his preventive detention.
In a letter addressed to the J&K assembly speaker, Singh stated that Malik was booked under the PSA “on grounds of his activities being prejudicial to the maintenance of public order… after due consideration of all relevant materials, reports and circumstances that clearly establish(es)” that Malik “posed a grave threat to peace, public order and tranquility” in Doda district.
The letter added, “Preventive detention under the PSA was, therefore, found necessary in the interest of maintaining public order and safeguarding law and order in the region. The intimation is being submitted for your kind information and record, as required.”
This is the first such preventive detention of an elected lawmaker in Jammu and Kashmir since the Union government revoked Article 370 on August 5, 2019. Amnesty International has described the PSA as a “lawless law.” In 2019, the PSA was also used to detain former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, and Mehbooba Mufti, along with other political leaders, lawyers, and businessmen ahead of the move to revoke Article 370, with many spending months in detention.
Since the state’s reorganization into a Union Territory, the district administrations in J&K have been run by the Lieutenant Governor, who controls the IAS cadre. The administration is only required to inform the assembly speaker of lawmakers’ arrests. Under sections 258 and 259 of the rules of procedure of the J&K Reorganisation Act 2019, the speaker’s consent is not mandatory for such arrests.
“Strongly condemn the use of PSA against MLA Mehraj Malik. Such draconian laws are weaponised to silence political voices & crush dissent. Such authoritarian measures are no way to resolve differences in a democracy,” PDP MLA from Pulwama Waheed Para said in a post on X.
People’s Conference leader Sajad Gani Lone called the detention “yet another assault on the democratic fabric of Jammu and Kashmir.”
He added, “We strongly condemn the use of the PSA against MLA Mehraj Malik. This is a soulless democracy,” and stated, “The will of the people of J&K continues to be subservient. What is the purpose of holding elections if an elected representative is denied the right to express his sentiments?”
Lone further warned that such measures “only deepen the crisis of credibility facing the democratic institutions in the region,” calling it “a very sad day for an already endangered democracy.”
This marks the first time a sitting MLA from the Union Territory has been held under the PSA, an administrative law that allows detention without charge or trial for up to two years in certain cases.
The arrest of the elected lawmaker, conducted in full view of cameras, drew sharp condemnation from the ruling National Conference, opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), People’s Conference, and others.
A video circulated showed Malik – president of the AAP’s J&K unit and elected from Doda East constituency in the 2024 Jammu and Kashmir assembly election – being forcibly dragged by policemen and bundled into a van near the Dak Bungalow in Doda after he tried to resist the arrest.
According to sources close to the AAP leader, Malik had stayed overnight at the bungalow and was preparing to visit flood-affected areas of the district when police arrested him.
Prior to his detention, Malik, who has had a contentious relationship with the district administration, called on his supporters to enforce a shutdown in Doda and warned that the administration would be held responsible for any law and order problems.
Following the arrest, a massive protest erupted in Gandoh, where Malik’s supporters chanted slogans against the administration and demanded his immediate release. Efforts to obtain comments from Deputy Commissioner Harvinder Singh were unsuccessful.
Reports said the police dossier against Malik cited 18 first information reports (FIRs) and daily diary entries to justify his preventive detention.
In a letter addressed to the J&K assembly speaker, Singh stated that Malik was booked under the PSA “on grounds of his activities being prejudicial to the maintenance of public order… after due consideration of all relevant materials, reports and circumstances that clearly establish(es)” that Malik “posed a grave threat to peace, public order and tranquility” in Doda district.
The letter added, “Preventive detention under the PSA was, therefore, found necessary in the interest of maintaining public order and safeguarding law and order in the region. The intimation is being submitted for your kind information and record, as required.”
This is the first such preventive detention of an elected lawmaker in Jammu and Kashmir since the Union government revoked Article 370 on August 5, 2019. Amnesty International has described the PSA as a “lawless law.” In 2019, the PSA was also used to detain former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, and Mehbooba Mufti, along with other political leaders, lawyers, and businessmen ahead of the move to revoke Article 370, with many spending months in detention.
Since the state’s reorganization into a Union Territory, the district administrations in J&K have been run by the Lieutenant Governor, who controls the IAS cadre. The administration is only required to inform the assembly speaker of lawmakers’ arrests. Under sections 258 and 259 of the rules of procedure of the J&K Reorganisation Act 2019, the speaker’s consent is not mandatory for such arrests.
“Strongly condemn the use of PSA against MLA Mehraj Malik. Such draconian laws are weaponised to silence political voices & crush dissent. Such authoritarian measures are no way to resolve differences in a democracy,” PDP MLA from Pulwama Waheed Para said in a post on X.
People’s Conference leader Sajad Gani Lone called the detention “yet another assault on the democratic fabric of Jammu and Kashmir.”
He added, “We strongly condemn the use of the PSA against MLA Mehraj Malik. This is a soulless democracy,” and stated, “The will of the people of J&K continues to be subservient. What is the purpose of holding elections if an elected representative is denied the right to express his sentiments?”
Lone further warned that such measures “only deepen the crisis of credibility facing the democratic institutions in the region,” calling it “a very sad day for an already endangered democracy.”
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