NEW DELHI: A former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, seen as being pro-India, has been formally arrested under a law allowing him to be held for up to two years without charge, authorities said on Tuesday.
Farooq Abdullah, 81, has been under house arrest since early August when India stripped Kashmir of its autonomy, imposed a security lockdown and detained dozens of local politicians including those who back the region being part of India.
But on Monday he was formally arrested under the Public Safety Act (PSA) and his home turned into a “judicial lockup”, Muneer Khan, a senior police official in Kashmir, told reporters.
It is the first confirmed case of a Kashmiri politician being arrested under the PSA since India’s August 5 move when it sent tens of thousands of troops to Kashmir and imposed a communications blackout.
India’s national security adviser said earlier this month that a “majority” of Kashmiris supported its move except for a “vocal minority” backed by neighbours.
But in the wake of the lockdown, even pro-India politicians have spoken out about New Delhi’s intervention.
A day after the Indian government revoked the special status, Abdullah climbed a wall of his house to address the media and condemned the move. That was the last time he was seen in public.
“Why could they not wait? After 70 years, they have stabbed the people of the state. As soon as our gates open, our people will be out.
“We will fight, we will go to the courts. We’re not gun-runners, grenade-throwers, stone-throwers, we believe in a peaceful resolution of things,” Abdullah said.
The PSA was introduced in the 1970s — under Abdullah’s father Sheikh Abdullah — to prevent timber smuggling but since an uprising against Indian rule erupted in 1989 it has been used to detain thousands of people, activists say.
The UN human rights office said in 2018 that special laws in Kashmir including the PSA “have created structures that obstruct the normal course of law, impede accountability and jeopardise the right to remedy for victims of human rights violations”.
NO TIES WITH PAKISTAN
In another development, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, while addressing a press conference in New Delhi, made it clear that there can be no normal relations with Pakistan until it “successfully” addresses the problem of cross-border terrorism and behaves like a “normal neighbour”.
Replying to questions on Jammu and Kashmir and abolition of its special status, he emphasised that Article 370 was a temporary provision of the Indian Constitution and it had to end someday. This is what India has been telling the world.
“The international community understands by and large what our objectives are. This (Article 370) was a temporary provision. I don’t see this in any analysis... When I meet foreign leaders, I give a history of this temporary provision.
The minister added that this provision was used by “a few” for their own vested interests and it affected social justice, development and the lack of development was “feeding separatism” which was being exploited by the neighbour. — AFP/IANS
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