He played a significant role in the 2010 Kashmir stone pelting rallies which broke out against the Machil encounter carried out by the Indian army in Kashmir. To stop such incidences Masrat Alam has been detained by the Government numerous times later. Government has booked Masrat Alam in 27 criminal cases but in most of these he has either been exonerated or bailed out by the courts and was released after Mufti Sayeed took over as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on 1 March 2015.[2] He was detained under the Jammu & Kashmir's Public Safety Act and was in March 2015 released which caused a major political controversy and dominated Indian Parliament Proceedings.[3] Amid speculations over his release Masrat Aalam said that no deal was made between him and the Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, saying "I spent more than four years in prison and during all these years I challenged the grounds of my 'illegal' detention".[4][5][6][7] He has been Jailed for 17 years and has around 27 cases against him.[8]