Srinagar :
Claiming that senior PDP leader Naeem Akhtar’s ‘illegal detention’ in a government building that is ill equipped for Kashmir’s bitter cold has finally taken a toll on his health, former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Friday alleged that ‘going by the centre’s callous attitude, it seem like they deliberately want to endanger political opponents’.
Akhtar, a former minister and spokesperson of the previous PDP-BJP coalition government in J&K, was hospitalized after he fell unconscious for 40 minutes in a sub-jail on Thursday.
“Nayeem Sahab’s illegal detention in a government building ill equipped for Kashmir’s biting cold finally took a toll on his health. Going by GOIs callous & spiteful attitude it seems like they deliberately want to endanger political opponents,” Ms Mehbooba, who is the President of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), wrote on micro-blogging site twitter.
Akhtar was arrested on December 21 from his house few days before the counting of votes in the District Development Council (DDC) elections which were held for the first time in the Union Territory (UT).
Daughter of Akhtar, Shehryar Khanum on Thursday said that her father was saved by a whisker. She said Akhtar was unconscious for 40 minutes before he was shifted to hospital. However, she thanked a senior police officer for informing her about shifting of Akhtar to hospital.
Akhtar was among the hundreds of mainstream leaders arrested on August 5 last year when centre abrogated Article 370 and 35 A , besides divided the erstwhile state into two Union Territories (UTs)—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh-. However, he was among the last to be released after he refused to sign an undertaking that he will not raise the issue of state’s special status after his release.