SRINAGAR:Majid Hyderi, a journalist and political analyst, has been booked under the strict Public Safety Act (PSA), according to officials. Majid Hyderi was detained last week by the Jammu and Kashmir Police on suspicion of criminal conspiracy and extortion. According to them, Hyderi has been arrested under the PSA and is being held at the Kot Balwal jail in the UT’s Jammu region. Hyderi, a local of the Peerbagh neighbourhood of the city, was detained late on Thursday night after police reported him in accordance with a court’s directive. “FIR number 88/2023 under sections 120B, 177, 386 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered at the Sadder police station on the basis of an order issued by the JMIC court in Srinagar,” police said on X.Police stated that he was detained on suspicion of criminal conspiracy, intimidation, extortion, providing false information, defamation, and other offences. The journalist and political pundit who frequently appeared on television news channels was granted bail on Saturday but was then detained again the next day for a different offence. Omar Abdullah, a former chief minister of J&K and vice president of the National Conference, referred to Hyderi’s PSA arrest as extremely upsetting. The reports of #MajidHyderi’s PSA imprisonment are quite upsetting. If true, this is again another example of how the current J&K administration is intolerant of any criticism.
In a post on X, Abdullah said, “I don’t think there is very much he and I would ever agree on because we are ideologically poles apart, but this reported detention and shift to a jail in Jammu is cruel & unnecessary.” Use the available defamation laws if Majid Hyderi has said something that offends someone. Even while he does endanger a few reputations, he isn’t a threat to public safety, the NC leader added.
