India, Oct. 23 -- The nine-day autumn session of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly began in Srinagar on Thursday with National Conference and Congress legislators protesting the recent arrest of Doda AAP MLA Mehraj Malik.

Malik, who is also the UT Aam Aadmi Party president, was booked under the stringent Public Safety Act and jailed in Kathua on September 8 after an altercation with Doda deputy commissioner Harvinder Singh when an online video was shared widely in which Malik allegedly used unparliamentary language over pending dues of a local resident.

As Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather began the proceedings by reading out the obituary references, NC MLA Hilal Akbar Lone stood up and raised the issue of Malik's arrest. The Speaker assured the ...