Hurriyat chairman and the Kashmir Valley’s chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq “is a free man”, the J&K Lieutenant-Governor’s administration told the Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Wednesday.
“The petitioner [Mirwaiz] has alleged that he has been detained in his house, as police and vehicular deployment has been made outside his house. This assertion of the petitioner is absolutely false and far from facts, as the petitioner is a free man, who on and off visits doctors, relatives, and attends other religious activities at his will,” senior Additional Advocate General Mohsin Qadri told the court.
Mr. Qadri countered the allegations levelled by the Mirwaiz that security forces deploy vehicles outside his residence gate in Srinagar’s Nigeen area as being “purely for safety”. “It is purely for safety and security purpose, and as a preventive measure, so as to foil any attempt of anti-national elements,” he said.
