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Srinagar, May 19, 2013 (PPI-OT): Zaheer Abbasi, a resident of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), is lodged in Kot Bhalwal jail, Jammu, for last five years despite facing charges for an offence punishable with two years.
After his arrest in Keran area of Kupwara, police filed a case under Section 2/3 Egress and Ingress Movement Control Ordinance (E and IMCO) against Zaheer Abbasi who hails from Chalabandi in Muzaffarabad.
Under E and IMCO, he faces maximum punishment of two years in jail, the authorities here continue to delay his trial by booking him under draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) from time to time, said his counsel advocate Mir Shafaqat Hussain.
Last week, Zaheer Abbasi through his counsel filed a petition in the High Court of occupied Kashmir seeking quashment of his fresh PSA detention order and conclusion of the trial in the case pending before a court in Kupwara.
Abbasi in the petition said that prosecuting agency was not taking any interest in concluding his trial for the reason that he had been detained time and again under the PSA.
As the petition came up for hearing before Justice Virender Singh, advocate Shafaqat submitted that the fresh detention order had perhaps already outlived its life for the reason that time fixed for detention by the detaining authority was six months only.
He said that his client be shifted to Srinagar or some other jail in the Valley so that the trial of the case at Kupwara was concluded at the earliest.
The court directed that the authorities should consider Abbasi’s lodgement in central jail Srinagar or any other prison nearer to the Kupwara court.
Justice Singh also directed the court to ensure that the trial of the case was wrapped up at the earliest.
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