From the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court: “A fundamentalist Muslim cannot be equated with an extremist or a separatist,” as reported by Live Law.
Justice Atul Sreedharan, sitting alone on the bench, made these observations while hearing a petition challenging the 22-year-old Shahbaz Ahmad Palla’s preventative detention. Among other things, the detention was contested on the grounds that the detainee had been falsely labelled a “hard-core fundamentalist” and had allegedly chosen to collaborate as an Over Ground Worker for The Resistance Front (TRF), an organisation linked to the LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) outfit.
The detainee’s father, represented by Advocate Shabir Ahmad, filed the case, WP(Crl) No. 142/2022, contesting the detention order of April 8, 2022. On April 14, 2022, Shahbaz Ahmad Palla was arrested and sent to Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu in accordance with the court’s decision.
According to the reasons given for his imprisonment in the order, Shahbaz Ahmad Palla was a member of the terrorist group TRF (The Resistance Front).
Nonetheless, it was contended throughout the proceedings that the petitioner’s detention was unjustified since the reasons were too general and insufficient proof existed to link him to the alleged criminal behaviour.
The court said, “The usage of the phrase ‘fundamentalist ideology’ by the District Magistrate, does not necessarily mean that the detenue possesses an extremist or separatist ideology.”
members of the Abrahamic faith must necessarily believe in four essentials of the religion in order to be recognised as members of that religion, which is why the “Oxford Fundamentalist ideology” is an integral aspect of the Abrahamic faith. A person who is committed to the tenets of one of the Abrahamic faiths is, by definition, a fundamentalist; nonetheless, this term is not pejorative and should not be confused with extremist or separatist.
Regarding Petitioner’s argument, the Court said, “Fundamentalist an adherent of fundamentalism” in reference to a Muslim who is a fundamentalist is simply someone who believes in and resolutely follows the foundations of Islam. It can’t change who he is as a person for the worse. A Muslim fundamentalist is not the same thing as an extremist or a separatist in the same way. As a result, the aforementioned basis is similarly nebulous and has been exploited freely without adequate comprehension.
The Pulwama District Magistrate issued a detention order, saying it was necessary to prevent the detenu from doing anything that may compromise the safety of the country. The detenu’s dad took exception to the directive.
Shabir Ahmad Dar, the petitioner’s attorney, said that the detenu should not have been required to understand the reasons for his arrest since they were given to him in English.
The court did note, however, that the detenu had signed the execution report in English and had attended school until the eleventh grade, both of which point to a foundational knowledge of the language. Since the detenu did not assert a linguistic barrier, the court determined that this could not constitute a breach.
The petitioner further argued that the reasons for detention lacked clarity and were based on assumptions and guesswork. The court concurred with this argument, noting that the grounds failed to provide specific details about the alleged acts that posed a threat to the nation’s security. In addition, the court heard no testimony from any witnesses who accused the detenu of wrongdoing.
