A court in Srinagar on Saturday asked the police to submit a report within 10 days on the seizure of two-wheelers in the city.
The police had begun seizing the vehicles in October amid heightened security after civilian killings in the Union Territory, according to The Kashmir Walla. The seizure of vehicles also came ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to Jammu and Kashmir.
As many as 11 civilians, including migrant workers, were killed by militants in Jammu and Kashmir in October. The Resistance Front, believed to be an offshoot of Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for most of the killings.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police had said that the seizure of bikes was related to terror-related incidents and had no link to the home minister’s visit.
Naveed Bukhtiyar, an activist, had moved the court of the Additional Special Mobile Magistrate (Traffic) in Srinagar with his plea that said the seizures violated provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act.
“From last one month Jammu and Kashmir Police has been detailing two wheelers illegally in violation of the provision of the Motor Vehicle Act and thereafter releasing the same by exercising the power of Mobile Magistrate/Traffic Judge,” the activist said, according to a copy of the court’s order.
Bukhtiyar claimed that his vehicle had also been seized illegally. “The illegal action has not only caused humiliation, mental agony but also taken away people’s fundamental rights,” he added.
The court said that since the activist’s accusations were serious, it had to intervene in the matter.
“SSP [senior superintendent of police] Srinagar is directed to call the report from police stations within district Srinagar regarding the issue and submit the compliance report before this court within a period of ten days,” the court said in its order.
The seizure of vehicles had also disrupted delivery services in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Just when the businesses in Kashmir were trying to recover from the losses caused during article 370 and global pandemic, our law and order is crumbling us again and again,” Sami Ullah, the co-founder of Fast Beetle delivery service in Kashmir, had tweeted on October 21.
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