Senior PDP leader Naeem Akhtar on Saturday became the sixth mainstream politician in Jammu and Kashmir to have been slapped with the Public Safety Act (PSA).
Officials said on Saturday that the administration has slapped the stringent law on the senior leader who served as a minister in Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's PDP-BJP government as well as under Mehbooba Mufti.
Akhtar is the sixth mainstream leader in Kashmir to be booked under the controversial PSA, which was enacted in 1978 to deal with rampant timber smuggling.
While former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah was booked under the PSA in September last year, two other former chief ministers -- Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti -- were booked under the stringent law on Thursday.
Besides Omar Abdullah and Mehboob Mufti, National Conference general secretary and former minister Ali Mohammed Sagar was served with a PSA notice public order by the authorities.
Sagar wields a support base in downtown Srinagar.
Senior Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Sartaj Madani was also booked under the PSA. Madani is the maternal uncle of Mehbooba Mufti.
Several mainstream politicians were taken into preventive custody in the aftermath of August 5 crackdown by the Centre on politicians following the abrogation of special status of the erstwhile state, besides its bifurcation into two union territories.
Over 20 leaders have either been released or shifted to their residences and put under house arrest.
(With PTI inputs)
