NEW DELHI, Nov 11: Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader Yasin Malik was released on parole on Monday after more than six months in prison but was being kept in protective custody to avoid a melee of well-wishers, officials said.

JKLF leaders said the move by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed to release Malik initially on a month’s parole was a victory for democracy. They however cautioned against seeing a solution to the Kashmir problem in Malik’s release.

“The release is a part of the Mufti government’s election promise to start negotiations with separatists and militants in the Valley,” Indian Express said in its portal-based news service.

Malik, who suffers from a heart ailment, was released from Kot Balwal jail in Jammu on Monday and brought to Srinagar.

Malik was initially arrested at a press conference he was holding under India’s newly introduced tough anti-terror POTA laws following the alleged recovery of US$100,000 from a former JKLF activist during a check on vehicles on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway.

Malik was granted bail in July after a court was told that his health had deteriorated. But within moments he was rearrested and booked under the PSA under which he could be detained for two years without trial.

Some more political detainees are expected to be released within a day or two. However, there is some doubt if former chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference and outspoken Jamaat-i-Islami leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was among them.