J&K High Court- Remove guards from near Farooq kin’s homes

The Jammu and Kashmir high court has ordered the government to withdraw security personnel posted outside the houses of Farooq Abdullah’s sister and Awami National Conference president Khalida Shah, her brother and National Conference leader Mustafa Kamaal and her son Muzaffar Shah.

The order came on Tuesday after conflicting claims by the government and the three appellants. The three approached court alleging that they were placed under house arrest , with the security personnel deployed outside their houses, ostensibly for their security, preventing their movement after the abrogation of Jammu & Kashmir’s special status on August 5 . The government claimed that the three were “free”.

The suggestion of withdrawal of security cover came from the court and was accepted by the lawyer representing the three after some initial reluctance. “Although the suggestion for surrendering their security cover has been made by the court with a view to ensure that the liberty and free movement of the appellants is not curtailed, yet it would be open to the appellants to apply for such a security cover later,” said the division bench of Justice D S Thakur and Justice Sanjeev Kumar.

The court also asked the government to ensure that the liberty of the three leaders was not curtailed except in accordance with the procedure prescribed by law. Commissioner Secretary Home Department was asked to file an affidavit in this regard in its Registry within a week for compliance.

Earlier a single judge bench of the court dismissed the trio’s claims that they were under house arrest prompting them to approach a division bench.