Valley leaders placed under house arrest, claims Oppn

Adil Akhzer

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Srinagar, August 5

Several mainstream politicians in the Valley including two former chief ministers on Monday were placed under house arrest, on the fifth anniversary of the abrogation of special status to Jammu and Kashmir in 2019. However, till late Monday evening, there was no statement from the Jammu and Kashmir Police about the detention of political leaders.

Blot on democracy

August 5, 2019 will go down in history not just as a dark day for J&K but a blot on Indian democracy. Mehbooba Mufti, Former CM & PDP Chief

Rights undermined

BJP has undermined our rights politically and celebrating the 5th anniversary of the UT.

Vikar Rasool Wani, J&K Congress chief on X

Unwarranted

I have been detained at home, which was completely unnecessary…this is unwarranted and illegal. Tanvir Sadiq, NC Chief Spokesperson on X

Since morning, leaders mostly from the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party said they had been detained by the police and were not allowed to leave their homes.

National Conference's chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq took to X and posted a picture stating that he has not been allowed to leave his house.

“I have been detained at home, which was completely unnecessary…this is unwarranted and illegal,” he wrote on X.

Tanvir, later told The Tribune that several party leaders had been put under house arrest, including party chief and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah.

A statement by the National Conference said this “blatant suppression of mainstream democratic activities only serves to showcase the administration's underlying fear and exposes the hollowness of their claims of progress over the past five years.”

Former chief minister and PDP chief, Mehbooba Mufti, who was also placed under house arrest said August 5, 2019 “will go down in history not just as a dark day for J&K but a blot on Indian democracy.”

“Five years on, the siege continues but so does the unyielding defiance & resistance. We Kashmiris refuse to be erased & unpeopled,” she said.

Mufti later said that while BJP continues its “charade of orchestrating ‘celebrations’ to mark the illegal revocation” of J&K’s special status, PDP successfully protested against the same in Jammu. “This was remarkable given that attempts were made to foil these protests. It serves well to expose the BJP's false claims of normalcy in J&K,” she said.

“J&K was a historical state endowed by the Maharaja with a state subject to safeguarding the land and jobs of the native population. BJP has undermined our rights politically and celebrating the 5th anniversary of the union territories,” said Vikar Rasool Wani, president J&K Pradesh Congress Committee on X.

While several leaders were put under house arrest, the BJP unit in Kashmir celebrated the abrogation in Srinagar. Local BJP leaders claimed the situation had improved in Jammu and Kashmir post-2019, and they wanted to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, for “taking the historic step” in 2019. The leaders chanted the slogan “Kashmir got freedom on August 5.”

Former chief minister and National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah, referring to the celebrations by BJP, said “a handful of BJP leaders” were encouraged to celebrate today while those “who would have registered their protest against what was done to J&K are locked up in homes across the valley.”