Youth booked under PSA for the fourth time in 8 years
The only earning member of a family has been booked under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) by authorities in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
Family members of the youth, Aatif Hassan said that police booked him under the PSA yet again and have shifted him to Kotbalwal jail in Jammu.
Aatif Hassan, a resident of Deva Colony, Janglat Mandi area of South Kashmir’s Anantnag district was a ‘habitual offender’ involved in multiple cases of stone-pelting, says the dossier that has been prepared by the police against him.
According to the police from past nine years, about 55 FIR’s stand registered against 28 year old Aatif Hasan in different police stations of the district. This is the fourth PSA against Aatif during the past eight years now.
According to sources Aatif was mostly expressing pro freedom sentiments on social networking sites for which he was harassed by forces so many times.
Local sources said that police arrested Aatif two weeks back when he was coming out of Anantnag District Court complex after a hearing into a previous case.
Locals added that Aatif Hasan was doing his routine pharmaceutical business and rarely appeared in any anti-India protest.
“He was targeted for expressing his pro-freedom sentiments on the social media,” said one of his relatives.
Aatif, the lone bread earner for the family has his old aged parents, wife and a four year old daughter who are totally dependent on him.
“His mother is physically challenged and as such needs extra care and timely medication for which the family will have to struggle even harder,” a close relative of Aatif lamented.
KV Correspondent
