HC quashes PSA detention of Pulwama youth

Srinagar, Aug 1: Underscoring that fundamentalist is merely someone who believes in the fundamentals of Islam and steadfastly pursues the same, The High Court of J&K and Ladakh held that a fundamentalist Muslim cannot be equated with an extremist or a separatist.

Quashing detention of a youth from south Kashmir’s Pulwama, who was booked under public Safety Act (PSA), a bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan said:  “Fundamentalist an adherent of fundamentalism pertaining to a Muslim who is a fundamentalist is merely someone who believes in the fundamentals of Islam and steadfastly pursues the same”.

“It cannot have a negative bearing on his personality,” it said. The Court said that the same as a fundamentalist Muslim cannot be equated with an extremist or a separatist.

“Therefore, the contention by the detaining authority, District Magistrate, was vague and has been used “lucidly without proper understanding,” it said.

The detaining authority contended that the youth was having a fundamentalist ideology and had become a “hard core fundamentalist” and voluntarily agreed to work as Over Ground Worker (OGW) of the TRF (The Resistance Front) which according to government is an outfit of the erstwhile LeT.

“The usage of the phrase “fundamentalist ideology” by the District Magistrate, does not necessarily mean that the detenue possess an extremist or separatist ideology. The Oxford “Fundamentalist ideology is part and parcel of the Abrahamic faith where the adherents have to necessarily believe in certain fundamentals of the religion to be accepted as the adherents of that religion,” the court said. “Therefore, someone who steadfastly pursues or follows the fundamentals of an Abrahamic faith, is undoubtedly a fundamentalist but there is no negativity associated with it and it is distinct from an extremist or a separatist”.

Allowing the petition, the court quashed the detention order against the 22-year-old Shahbaz Ahmad Palla who who was detained by Police Station Pulwama on 8 April last year by virtue of the order.