Srinagar, October 29, 2020 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, prominent Hurriyat leader, Sarjan Barkati, who is known as ‘Freedom Chacha’ and the pied piper of Kashmir, was released by the authorities after over four years of illegal detention. Sarjan Barkati, who hails from South Kashmir’s Shopian district, was known for his sloganeering during the 2016 mass uprising that started following the extrajudicial killing of popular youth leader, Burhan Muzaffar Wani. He was arrested on October 01 that year.
Locals from Reban, the native village of Barkati said that scores of people gathered outside the house of Barkati and welcomed him. Pertinently, his family members have been protesting at different locations from the last four years to demand his release.
“From the last four years, my husband was in police custody and we were facing a lot of problems to survive,” Shabroza Bano, the spouse of Sarjan Barkati, said. “We are indebted to those who have assisted us in our odd days and were very happy that he has been finally released,” she said. “We have gone through very tough days since then as my children were most often getting up at night and used to cry when they couldn’t find their father next to them,” she said.
Shabroza said that hundreds of people were visiting their house to ask her husband to participate in rallies in their areas during the 2016 uprising. “I faced all hardships because I know my husband was not on any wrong path,” she said, while thanking people who have helped them in the last four years. Sarjan Barkati was immediately booked under draconian law, Public Safety Act (PSA), after his arrest in Islamabad district on October 01, 2016 and since then was under illegal detention.
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