Srinagar: Police on Thursday prevented the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) from staging a protest march against the detention of its Doda MLA, Mehraj Malik, by blocking party members, including Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, from leaving the Circuit House here.
Singh and other AAP members had arrived in Srinagar on Wednesday and were scheduled to hold a press conference and sit-in protest at the Press Enclave. The party members were staying at the Circuit House in the city’s Sonwar area.
However, a heavy police presence was deployed outside the Circuit House, and the gates were closed. When Singh and other members attempted to leave, they were stopped by the police.
In a video message, Singh criticized the police action as “dictatorship.” He said, “Raising our voice in a democracy is our constitutional and democratic right. Today, we were holding a protest against Mehraj Malik’s arrest and had planned a press conference. Yet, a massive police deployment is preventing us from moving out.”
Singh added that the authorities “did not even provide a reason for stopping us,” calling it “the height of dictatorship.” Referring to the planned protest and press conference, he questioned, “Is it a crime in a democracy to raise your voice against an illegal arrest?”
Malik, who won the Doda seat in the 2024 Assembly elections by over 4,500 votes, was detained on Monday under the Public Safety Act (PSA) for allegedly disturbing public order, officials said. He has been lodged in Kathua district jail.
This marks the first instance of a sitting MLA in Jammu and Kashmir being detained under the stringent law, which allows detention without charge or trial for up to two years in some cases.
