Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Government on Friday
ordered releasing on parole moderate separatist leader Shabir
Ahmed Shah, who is in jail for eight months, to enable him
meet his ailing mother hospitalised after a cardiac arrest.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah made the goodwill gesture and
ordered his release from prison in Jammu region.
Shah, considered as a moderate separatist leader, was
lodged in a prison at Kathua after he was arrested by police
here under the tough Public Safety Act in February.
Earlier this month, Shah's mother was shifted to Soura
Medical Institute after she suffered cardiac arrest.
The release of Shah comes a day before three central
interlocutors -- Dileep Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and M M Ansari
-- are to arrive here for meeting various shades of
opinion in the Valley.
Shah, who formed his own Democratic Freedom Party (DFP)
after breaking away from Hurriyat, was arrested when the state
police carried out a major crackdown on the separatist leader
for allegedly funding and fomenting trouble in the state.
He was picked up along with his one-time aide Nayeem Khan
and Basharat, who claimed to be orchestrating stone-pelting.
PTI
First Published: Friday, October 22, 2010, 18:49