Former IAS Officer Shah Faesal Detained Under Public Safety Act For Anti-Government Posts On Social Media

Jammu and Kashmir politician and former IAS officer, Shah Faesal, whose detention after the abrogation of article 370 in J&K triggered massive outrage, has been detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA) that permits detention without trial for up to three months and multiple extensions.

This adds Faesal to the long list of leaders including three former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, who have been booked under the PSA in J&K. Other political leaders who have been charged under the PSA include Ali Mohammed Sagar, Naeem Akhtar, Sartaj Madani and Hilal Lone.

Around 12 am on February 15, a senior officer of J&K administration gave Faesal the PSA dossier including 27 pages of his social media posts, made in the last few years, especially after he quit the IAS.

The posts, considered critical of the government were highlighted as grounds for invoking the PSA after his preventive detention ended on Friday night.

Faesal was also detained over his alliance with former legislator, engineer Shiekh Abdul Rashid, who was arrested in a terror funding case, as mentioned in the government dossier. Rashid had contested the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat in 2019 and had managed to secure more than one lakh votes. A few days before the polls, Faesal had urged people of north Kashmir to vote for Rashid saying that he too, would vote for him.

The former IAS topper was first detained at the Delhi airport on August 14, 2019 and was sent back to Kashmir. The government had claimed that he was travelling abroad on a tourist visa and not a student visa.

Faesal has been one of the most vocal critics of the government's decision to scrap Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcate the state into two Union Territories. He was followed by many on social media and used it even to mobilise funds for his party, the J&K Political Movement (JKPM).

Faesal, a qualified doctor, quit the IAS in January 2019, to protest against the "unabated killings" in Kashmir and the "marginalization of Indian Muslims".

Also Read: Mehbooba Mufti Is 'Daddy's Girl', Omar Abdullah A 'Radical': Govt's PSA Dossier