Physically challenged persons too bear PSA brunt in Kashmir after Article 370 abrogation

Hundreds of people including former Chief Ministers were detained under Public Safety Act in Jammu and Kashmir after article 370 was abrogated. The act has not spared even physically challenged as many of them were detained and spent a considerable period in the detention.

Srinagar: Days before abrogation of Article 370 on August 5 last year by the BJP-led government, hundreds of persons including former chief ministers were detained under Public Safety Act (PSA).

As per the Ministry of Home Affairs, 5161 persons were detained after August 5. 396 persons were detained under PSA. Among these persons were few residents of Kashmir who are physically challenged and had a horrible time in jail.

Waseem Teli, 25 years old, a young man from Sopore has lost his vision after he was hit by a shell during unrest in 2010. Teli told ETV Bharat that he was detained by local police in Sopore few days before August 5.

"After a few days I was slapped with PSA and shifted to Central jail from Sopore police station. I was in Central Jail for eight months- A horrible time for me," Teli said.

"The PSA dossier accuses me of pelting stones and disturbing law and order. How can I pelt stones and participate in protests when I can't see by my one eye," he said.

Teli is a labourer and says he has mother and a physically challenged brother who can't walk.

"During my detention in jail, my mother had to leave her home and live with her daughters. She could not meet me in jail. It was a terrible time for me to spent eight months in jail. I could not see my mother. All the time I was thinking about her survival and about my physically challenged brother," he said.

Besides Teeli, 34-year-old Shabir Ahamd Wani from South Kashmir's Awantipora area was also jailed under PSA for five months.

Shabir is suffering from a severe bone infection called osteomyelitis, a disease which has caused deep crater into his skin on his right leg and made him limp.

Days before August 5, police came to his home in Padgampora village in Awantipora and whisked him away into Awantipora police station.

Wani was slapped with PSA and spent five months in jail where he faced many tribulations due to his disability.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International had termed PSA as "black and draconian" and said that it was abused by the Jammu and Kashmir administration since its inception.

After the abrogation of Article 370, three former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti were slapped with PSA and put under detention for months.

On December 3, World Disability Day was observed by the Jammu and Kashmir administration during which it held many events to showcase welfare schemes for physically challenged persons.

Teli and Wani ask that despite welfare schemes for the physically challenged persons, they were put to ordeal by the administration after August 5 and the jail time has left a scary mark on mental health.

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