Court Grants Bail To PDP Youth Leader Arrested By NIA For Alleged Links With Militants

People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Waheed ur Rehman Parra has been granted bail by a court two weeks after he won the District Development Council (DDC) polls from Pulwama.

PDP sources said the court has granted bail to Parra but he has not been released yet.

Parra was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) over his alleged links with militants a day after submitting his nomination papers for the DDC elections from Pulwama in December.

NIA arrested a senior police officer Davinder Singh along with two militants in March.

Waheed was summoned by the NIA to its New Delhi headquarters for interrogation and formally arrested there in the same case.

The PDP has been all along calling Parra’s arrest BJP’s attempt to “criminalise dissent”.

Para, an influential youth leader from south Kashmir’s Pulwama area, is a close aide of former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. 

He held the post of secretary of the J&K Sports Council during the PDP-BJP coalition government in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Mehbooba said Para’s win entails trust people repose in her party despite being hounded by the ruling BJP with false cases.

“Couldn’t be prouder of PDPs @parawahid who won his maiden election by a huge margin of votes. Despite being arrested on baseless charges right after filing his nomination people have shown their love & trust for Waheed. Hope justice prevails,” Mehbooba tweeted after his win.

Para was among the hundreds of mainstream politicians who were detained ahead of abrogation of Article 370 on August 5 last year.

He was released after spending almost a year in jail last year.