Omar's sister moves SC challenging PSA detention

New Delhi: Omar Abdullah's sister on Monday challenged in the Supreme Court his detention under the stringent J&K Public Safety Act(PSA) terming the move "arbitrary and whimsical" even as authorities called his fellow detained party leader Hilal Lone as a "poster boy" who can easily instigate people to agitate. In her plea, Sara Abdullah Pilot submitted that the order of detention under the stringent PSA is "manifestly illegal" and there is no question of him being a "threat" to the maintenance of public order.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Pilot, mentioned the matter for urgent listing before a bench headed by Justice N V Ramana.

Sibal told the bench that they have filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the detention of Abdullah under the PSA and the matter should be heard this week. The bench agreed to urgent listing of the matter.

"The grounds for the detention order are wholly lacking any material facts or particulars which are imperative for an order of detention," the plea said, adding that the detention order is "illegal".

"It is rare that those who have served the nation as members of Parliament, Chief Ministers of state, ministers in the Union and have also stood by the national aspirations of India are now perceived as a threat to the state," the plea said.

Meanwhile, the Indian government will take a second set of foreign envoys to Kashmir this week, a month after the first batch of foreign diplomats was taken to the region whose special status was revoked by New Delhi in August. The second team of envoys will include diplomats of some European and Gulf countries, said a person familiar with the development.With agency inputs