Srinagar: Two months after National Conference President Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar were placed in restrictive custody, the Jammu and Kashmir administration on Sunday allowed an NC delegation from Jammu to meet two former chief ministers.
“The delegation led by provincial president Devender Singh Rana and comprising former party legislators will fly from Jammu tomorrow morning,” National Conference spokesperson Madan Mantoo said. Rana had sought permission from Governor Satya Pal Malik in this regard.
Rana, after getting confirmation of the permission, said that a 15-member delegation of NC leaders, all of them former legislators, will go to Srinagar on Sunday.
Farooq and Omar Abdullah were placed under detention on the night of August 4, a day before the centre moved to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its special status. While 81-year-old Farooq Abdullah is under house arrest at his Srinagar residence after being booked under the Public Safety Act, Omar has been detained at a state guest house.
The government has also detained most of the political leadership of Kashmir, including Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti and Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference chairman Sajjad Lone, to prevent a possible backlash to its move to nullify Article 370.
Mantoo said that the decision to meet the Abdullahs was taken at an emergent meeting of senior functionaries and district presidents of the Jammu Province two days ago, soon after restrictions on the movement of Jammu-based National Conference leaders were lifted.
Although Jammu-based leaders have been released after the announcement of the local body polls, a similar action in the Kashmir Valley may not come soon. The adviser to the Jammu and Kashmir governor, Farooq Khan, on Thursday, said that Kashmiri leaders will be released “one by one after analysis of every individual”.
{PTI}
