Former IAS officer and J&K leader Shah Faesal, who has been under detention since August 2019, was on Saturday booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA) by the Jammu and Kashmir administration.
The stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) allows detention without trial for up to three months and multiple extensions.
The move comes days after the stringent law was invoked against former J&K Chief Ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti. Omar’s father and Lok Sabha MP Farooq Abdullah is also booked under the PSA.
The trio was taken into preventive detention following the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019.
Faesal, the 2010 IAS topper from Jammu and Kashmir, last year had resigned from the services to take up politics by launching its own political outfit – Jammu & Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM).
On August 14 last year, Faesal was prevented from boarding a flight from New Delhi to Istanbul. He was taken to Srinagar and placed under house arrest.
Faesal has been a vocal critic of the government’s decision on the removal of special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and its bifurcation into two Union Territories.