J&K High Court directs admin to file reply over house arrest of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq
Kashmir High Court on Friday directed the J&K administration to file a response regarding the petition challenging continued house arrest of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is under detention for over four years now.
Mirwaiz’s lawyer Nazir Ahmad Ronga confirmed that the J&K High Court court has directed the Union Territory administration to file its objections regarding the petition by October 4 this year.
Mirwaiz has been kept under house arrest since August 4 2019, when the BJP led central government abrogated special status of J&K and downgraded the erstwhile state into two union territories of J&K and Ladakh. In the wake of the decision the government had imposed a communication blockade for several weeks, restricted internet for a few months and arrested over 7500 people across J&K including three former chief ministers, Hurriyat leaders, human rights activists, lawyers and businessmen.
Some of them, including four journalists, continue to remain in jails.
The Anjuman Auqaf, which runs the historic Jama Masjid in Srinagar, strongly denounced Mirwaiz's continued house arrest, informing that he wasn’t allowed to address 212 consecutive Friday congregations at the Jama Masjid for over four years now. “Despite repeated appeals and requests from all quarters to the authorities he is not being released from house arrest, despite their claims that he is ‘not detained’.
