Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti arrested
SRINAGAR : Minutes after Mehbooba Mufti was arrested, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah was also taken into custody. Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference leaders Sajjad Lone and Imran Ansari have also been arrested. Some more arrests have been made, officials said, without sharing details.
Mehbooba Mufti has been taken to Hari Niwas – a VVIP state guest house. She was put under house arrest last night as the authorities clamped restrictions under Section 144 of CrPC. The reason for her arrest was not immediately known. Earlier in the day, Mehbooba Mufti had come down heavily on the Modi government for scrapping J&K’s special status.
“The abrogation of Article 370 hasn’t just made accession null and void but also reduces India to an occupation force in Jammu and Kashmir,” she claimed on social media. In a series of tweets, PDP chief claimed that Kashmiri people were defeated and betrayed by Indian institutions.
“Today the people of Jammu & Kashmir who reposed their faith in institutions of India like parliament & Supreme Court feel defeated & betrayed. By dismembering the state & fraudulently taking away what is rightfully & legally ours, they have further complicated the Kashmir dispute,” she had said in another tweet.Mehbooba Mufti has been taken from her home in Srinagar to a nearby government guest house.
The government’s move yesterday to place her and Kashmir valley’s other mainstream leaders — Omar Abdullah and Sajjad Lone – and its move this morning to end the state’s special status and bifurcate it, had provoked a torrent of tweets from the two leaders. Omar Abdullah has already indicated that his party might challenge the government’s move in court.
In a statement this morning after Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s announcement in parliament, Mr Abdullah said: “The scrapping of Articles 370 and 35A raise fundamental questions on the State’s accession because that was done on the very terms enunciated in these Articles. The decisions are unilateral, illegal and unconstitutional and will be challenged as such by the National Conference. A long and tough battle lies ahead”.
Ms Mufti — the chief of People’s Democratic Party that ruled the state along with the BJP till their partnership ended in June last year — has been vocal about the events in the state since the troop build-up started last week.
GOIs intention is clear & sinister. They want to change demography of the only muslim majority state in India , disempower Muslims to the extent where they become second class citizens in their own state.
Today marks the darkest day in Indian democracy. Decision of J&K leadership to reject 2 nation theory in 1947 & align with India has backfired. Unilateral decision of GOI to scrap Article 370 is illegal & unconstitutional which will make India an occupational force in J&K.(With pti Inputs ).
