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Srinagar, Sep 21 (UNI) The Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association (JKBA) has challenged the arrest and detention of the Coordination Committee spokesperson, Masrat Alam, under the Public Safety Act (PSA).

The JKBA had earlier also challenged and successfully halted the shifting of four senior separatist leaders, including Shabir Ahmad Shah, detained under the PSA, to jails outside the valley.

President of the Bar Mian Abdul Qayoum challenging the detention has filed a petition in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.

The petition, referring to other judgments of the High Courts and Supreme court, termed the detention order as illegal and unconstitutional.

Mr Alam was arrested during recent processions in the Kashmir valley, after he was appointed spokesman of the CC, an alliance of both the factions of the Hurriyat Conference and more than a dozen other separatists, traders, Bar, religions and social organisations.

The authorities in the detention order have accused Mr Alam of being involved in the militancy in Nineties and participating in anti-India rallies in the city.

The authorities have arrested about one hundred, senior, second rank and other separatist leaders, besides, those who participated in processions in the Kashmir valley.

About a dozen of them have been detained under the PSA.

UNI BAS MYK GT AS1250