Omar and me under arrest, says Farooq

Jammu, August 6

An emotional NC chief Farooq Abdullah today asked the Government of India if after dividing J&K , it would divide hearts too. “They have divided regions. Are they going to divide people’s hearts also? Will they divide Hindus and Muslims? This India belongs to all of us — Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs,” he said, speaking to TV channels outside his residence in Srinagar. 

“The move to bifurcate the state into two UTs and scrapping of special status is a betrayal of all those who stood with India,” the Lok Sabha member from Srinagar said. He accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of lying in Parliament, claiming that he (Farooq) was not under arrest. “I am sad the Home Minister can lie like this. There is no written order, but we have been placed under house arrest.” 

Earlier, Shah had claimed that the NC chief had “neither been detained nor arrested” and was at his home. The 81-year-old said, “For 70 years we have fought the battle, and today we are supposed to be the culprits. As soon as our people will be out, we will fight, we’ll go to the court.  “We’re not gun-runners or stone-throwers. We believe in peaceful resolutions. They want to murder us. My son (Omar) is in jail,” he claimed. — TNS