New Delhi, Sept 14: Four residents of Pak-occupied Kashmir (PoK) have petitioned the Supreme Court here seeking release from a jail in Uttar Pradesh saying they could not be detained under foreigners act as they were residents of PoK, which was an integral part of Jammu and Kashmir and India. A bench comprising Justice M B Shah and Justice A R Lakshmanan issued notices to the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir government on the petition filed by four residents of PoK, lodged in the Central Jail at Varanasi under Public Safety Act (PSA) invoked by the state government.

The bench, after hearing their counsel Prof Bhim Singh of Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party, directed the matter be listed for hearing on September 18 along with the another petition pertaining to prolonged detention of 11 more Pakistani prisoners without any valid order.
The petitioners were Amir Hamza of Chowk Kambal, Mirpur, Sajjad Ali Bukhari of Mandyari, Kotli, Umarddin alias Amzad Chadha of Qazi Sharief, muzzaffarabad and alam khan of village Siri Dora, Muzzaffarabad.

All four, who approached the court through the state legal aid committee, contended that "a citizen of PoK is the citizen of India being a permanent state subject (permanent resident) of Jammu and Kashmir."

Bureau Report