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Srinagar, Dec 22 (UNI) For the first time during the past 18 years of militancy, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court ordered immediate release of a woman, accused of working for the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), and handed over the detainee to her parents.

Khalida Akhtar, 22, booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA), was the first detainee released in an open court during the past 18 years of turmoil in Kashmir.

Akhtar, according to her counsels, was detained for the first in 2001 for allegedly abetting militants and working for the LeT. The order was challenged in the court which quashed it.

However, she was re-arrested in 2003 and booked under PSA. The order was challenged in the court which again quashed it. But, in September last year, police again took her into custody, they added.

Akhtar, a resident of Sheeri in Baramulla, was interrogated for eight days and later shifted to the Handwara police station.

The detention was challenged through a writ petition which stated that the High Court had twice quashed the detention orders against her. The counsels also said that the competent court concerned had already given her bail in an FIR under which she was booked.

The District Magistrate still passed the detention order against her on the recommendation of the SSP and she was lodged in the District Jail at Jammu.

Police had claimed that Akhtar was arrested when she was on her way to meet a Lashkar commander, Anas, operating in north Kashmir.

A single bench of Justice Hakeem Imtiyaz heard the arguments of both the sides. During the last hearing, the court was informed by the counsels that the woman was tortured and her tooth got broken during interrogation.

The Bench took serious note of the matter and directed the State to produce the woman before the court on December 21. In compliance with the orders, the State produced her before the court yesterday.

Police failed to provide substantial evidence against her following which the court quashed the detention order passed by the District Magistrate, terming it as ''non-application of mind''. The court also held that there were no compelling reasons for the detaining authority to pass the impugned order.

Justice Imtiyaz then ordered the immediate released of Akhtar in the open court and directed the Registrar Judicial to hand over the woman to her father.

UNI AG MSJ DS1607