Srinagar: Former IAS officer Shah Faesal, who is under detention, has been taken to a makeshift detention centre at the Centaur Hotel here, officials said Thursday. He was shifted from his home to the hotel during the night.
Faesal who was stopped from taking a flight to Istanbul at the Delhi airport during the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday was flown back to Srinagar where he was detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA), they said.
During preliminary questioning, Faesal said he was taking a connecting flight to London from Istanbul, the officials said.
Also read: ‘Everything Has Been Lost. Except Our Resolve to Fight Back’: Shah Faesal on Kashmir
The former bureaucrat from Jammu and Kashmir had floated the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Movement party after resigning from the Indian Administrative Service.
After being detained at the Delhi airport, he was again detained under the PSA on his arrival in Srinagar, the officials said.
Faesal had criticised the “unprecedented” lock-down in the Valley.
Despite the communications blackout, he has managed to put up Facebook posts and also give a media interview. On Tuesday, he tweeted that you can now either be “a stooge or a separatist” as mainstream politics in the Kashmir Valley has been wiped out with the changes to Article 370.
He is among the last political leaders who have been placed under house arrest.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti were detained after the Centre revoked the special status and announced that the state be bifurcated into the territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
The Jammu and Kashmir authorities last week airlifted a fresh batch of 20 “potential troublemakers” from Srinagar to Agra as a precautionary measure in the wake of constitutional changes made by the government.
Among those airlifted include president of Kashmir High Court Bar Association Mian Qayoom.
Rights advocates from around the world have been critical of the Centre’s moves in Kashmir, including the crushing of all voices and using pellet guns against protestors. In the last few days, multiple ground reports have highlighted how people are being adversely affected by the transport and communication blackouts.
(With inputs from PTI)