Srinagar, April 21, 2023 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the High Court has quashed Kashmiri journalist Fahad Shah’s draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) and directed the authorities to release him forthwith. The court said: “In the present case, the procedural requirement has not been followed and complied with by respondents in letter and spirit and as a corollary thereof, the petition is required to be allowed and the detention order is liable to be quashed.”

The court also said that no compelling reasons have been given or shown by the detaining authority while passing the detention order against Shah when he was already in custody and under an FIR in which no bail had been granted. Indian police had arrested him after calling him to a police station in Pulwama for questioning on February 4, last year.

He was arrested after he published the narrative of the families of some fake encounter victims which was in conflict with the Indian police version. He is currently lodged at Kot Bhalwal jail of Jammu. Several organizations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), had called upon the Indian Government to release the incarcerated journalist, however, despite a year having passed since his arrest the journalist continues to remain under detention.

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