J-K’s MLA hostel sheds prison tag

SRINAGAR — The administration of J&K Union Territory has removed the prison tag from MLA hostel Srinagar, where Kashmir’s mainstream leaders were lodged after their detention in 2019.

The UT’s Home department has de-notified MLA hostel Srinagar as a subsidiary jail. It was still a prison on paper.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (b) of Section 2 of the Prisoners Act, 1900 (Act. No 10 of 1987), the building with the premises declared and notified as “subsidiary jail” vide notification S.0. 09 dated 14.11.2019 is hereby de-notified with immediate effect,” reads a notification issued by the Home department, as per the news agency KNO.

On November 14, 2019, 34 mainstream leader’s including Peoples Conference President Sajad Gani Lone, bureaucrat-turned-politician Shah Faesal and NC General Secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar were lodged in the MLA hostel.

They were shifted to the MLA hostel due to escalating cost of their lodging at SKICC. Three days before their shifting, on November 14, 2019, the MLA hostel was notified as a subsidiary jail under the Prisoners Act-1900 which became applicable to J&K on October 31, 2019.

Hilal Akbar Lone, son of NC MP Muhammad Akbar Lone, was the last person released from MLA hostel in March 2021.