The row over the detention of 30-year-old social activist Rehmatullah Padder under the stringent Public Safety Act in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda escalated Thursday, with the state’s lone Aam Aadmi Party MLA Mehraj Malik calling on Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to help ensure his immediate release. In his post on X, Malik claimed the activist had been arrested for raising a “civic issue”. Paddar, a volunteer with a Doda-based NGO, ABABEEL, was arrested on November 10 on charges of being an “OGW (overground worker) and a sympathiser of militants and continuously indulging in anti-national activities through ISI/Pak based settled militants”. In his post, Malik claimed Padder was detained for having raised sanitation problems. Padder had posted a video slamming solid waste management in Doda’s Ward No. 7, claiming that authorities here burned garbage despite the government spending crores of rupees on waste segregation. “This young man is detained under PSA today, yesterday he had raised questions on district administration Doda for their failure. This area could not be cleaned but he is arrested now. This is Swatchh Bharat of Modi,” he claimed, tagging the Prime Minister, Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and Chief Minister Abdullah. In a second post on November 13, he appealed to the CM “to take up issue with home ministry, that before any PSA is imposed by the DM, a judicial or legal committee should be established at the district/state level to examine the dossier's authenticity”. “Most cases are quashed in the first hearing as they are often rooted in revenge. It's a matter of the precious carrier of youth,” he wrote. In his order on November 9, Doda District Magistrate Harvinder Singh cited a police dossier claiming that “the subject is consistently trying to act against the security of the State and has been taken into custody in the past as well to protect the State and its citizens from his ill designs”. “The subject is a strong motivator of Jihad and has good oratory skills, with an ability to attract a large number of people towards anti-national activities, especially the youth. He has the habit of speaking against the nation, its secular values and the security forces, trying to incite the masses, especially the youth, which have every propensity to create serious situations for the state,’’ the order reads. The police dossier cited by the official referred to five FIRs, police daily entries and istgassa (complaints) filed against Padder. While the FIR in 2016 accused him of leading processions that saw pro-Azadi and anti-India slogans being raised, the ones in 2021 and 2023 book him for alleged wrongful restraint, abduction and assault. The fifth FIR, filed in 2024, is for allegedly abducting a civilian and assaulting him in captivity. The police dossier mentions that Padder has been granted bail in all cases and that "trial is in progress". According to a senior functionary of the ABABEEL who did not want to be named, Padder was tasked with arranging blood for patients during medical emergencies. Another volunteer, however, said Padder had been suspended by the NGO after he declared support for Malik during the assembly elections. “Being non-political, we’ve told all our volunteers to remain apolitical and not to indulge in any political activity of any organisation,” he said. Meanwhile, the district administration said that "an OGW has been detained after following due process of law on grounds totally different from what is being circulated on social media”.
