NRI businessman booked after FB post on Kashmir domicile law goes viral

‘My lawyers will look into it’, says Mubeen Shah

Srinagar: Kashmir-born NRI businessman Mubeen Shah has been booked by J&K police after his recent Facebook post against the new domicile law went viral.

Shah, who is currently in Malaysia, was released in December last year and the Public Safety Act against him revoked permanently. He had been detained in August and placed in Agra central jail.

Sources said that Mubeen Shah has been booked on charges of sedition after he asked people of Kashmir “to put a collective fight against settler-colonialism”.

SSP Srinagar Dr Haseeb Mughal confirmed that an FIR had been lodged against Shah.

“We have jurisdiction everywhere. We will follow all the legal procedures, he is a resident of Kashmir and law will take its own course,” the SSP told The Kashmir Monitor on Shah currently being in Malaysia.

With Article 370 abrogated, the authorities have started issuing domicile certificates to non-locals even as a senior IAS officer from Bihar became one of the first persons to receive the certificate which allows non-natives to buy land, apply for jobs, and pursue education in J&K.

In his long Facebook post of June 26, which until Monday morning had over 1300 shares, Shah had written: “All village/mohalla/town committees of Kashmir should come together and make sure that not a single non-local lives in their areas. They should ask all non-Kashmiris to vacate and leave Kashmir. Each and every local committee must do its part.”

Reacting to him being booked by police for his post, Shah Monday morning wrote on his FB handle: “I know they have booked me and registered an FIR against me. My lawyers will look into it but I will not desist from writing what I feel is the truth…”

Shah runs a handicraft business from Malaysia and has an extended family along with business associations in Kashmir.

He was detained on the night of August 4, 2019, before J&K special status was revoked, under the public safety act which had led to demands in India and the US for his release.