Srinagar: National Conference (NC) leader and elected Member of Parliament Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi on Monday demanded immediate release of youth arrested in south Kashmir “so that they re-join their educational institutions without further delay.”

“We demand an immediate release of the arrested youth without causing any blemish on their career so that they can immediately re-join their respective education institutions and resume their studies,” Justice Masoodi said while addressing NC workers at Khanabal in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

He said that hundreds of youth from south Kashmir areas like Kokernag, Anantnag, Qazigund, Awantipora, Pampore, Seer Hamdan and other places and a good number of them reportedly juveniles have been arrested on mere suspicion and locked in the police stations after the killing of militant commander Zakir Musa.

He said that hundreds of people wait outside police stations for hours together, to see their children free from police custody.

Masoodi appealed to the administration to immediately let off the youth without registering a case as they have been arrested on “mere suspicion that they may join a religious gathering” and registration of cases in these circumstances would unjustifiably put their career at peril and push them to uncertainty.

Justice Masoodi reminded the administration that atrocities and high handedness would be fraught with grave consequences and in some case push the harassed youth to militancy.

He has asked the administration and police authorities to learn from the “previous mistakes” and avoid confrontationist attitude.