Srinagar: Hardline pro-Pakistan separatist leader Massarat Aalam Bhat was shifted to a Jammu jail from Srinagar overnight after the authorities in Jammu and Kashmir again slapped the State's stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) against him on Wednesday.
The PSA allows detention of a person up to two years and for a minimum of six months without trial. However, such cases are reviewed by an official screening committee at intervals.
Bhat, 45, who allegedly played key role in organising the 2010 civil unrest in the Valley during which as many as 120 youth were killed, mainly in police firings, was released from jail by the PDP-BJP coalition government in March this year after spending over four years in jail under PSA.
However, the move triggered a political controversy in and outside the State and virtually brought the ruling coalition partners PDP and BJP to an eyeball-to-eyeball situation. The dust had not settled fully as yet that pro-Pakistan slogans were raised and that country's national flag was waved on April 15 at a rally here that he was part of. Two days later, police again arrested Bhat from his Srinagar residence.
