Opposition leaders have condemned the detention of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah under the Public Safety Act.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said it was the “country’s misfortune” if mainstream leaders were jailed in J&K.
“I strongly condemn it. It is most unfortunate that a former Chief Minister of one of the oldest political parties in Kashmir has been detained,” Mr. Azad said.
“Each Chief Minister, and each political party, be it the Congress, the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party, in Jammu and Kashmir have tried their level best to fight militancy. If there is no militancy today, it is because of these political parties and not the BJP,” he said.
If political leaders who fought against militancy and separatists for “the unity and integrity of the country are put behind bars under the PSA, it is the misfortune of the country. I know how many civilians lives we had to lose, how leaders we had to lose while fighting militancy in the 1990s,” he said.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen chief and Lok Sabha member Asaduddin Owaisi hit out at the Narendra Modi government on Dr. Abdullah’s detention.
Where normalcy?
“If you can feel threatened by a former Chief Minister and senior citizen, then what normalcy,” Mr. Owaisi asked. “And what about the claims made by Amit Shah [Home Minister] in the Lok Sabha that Farooq Sahab was not detained. Was he lying then.”
Congress Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor, who had enquired about Dr. Abdullah while debating Article 370 in the Lok Sabha last month, too pointed to the Home Minister’s statement on Twitter.
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, in a tweet, criticised the arrest Dr. Abdullah. He accused Mr. Shah of lying in Parliament.
Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary D. Raja said,“First, they put him under house arrest and now they slap PSA against Dr. Abdullah, a former Chief Minister. The question is: how can the Centre impose a State law when they have dissolved the State and made it a Union Territory. This shows how arbitrarily the Centre is treating the Kashmir issue, especially to impose a draconian act against a former Chief Minister.”
