Srinagar: Hoping that the Centre would release all political detainees, including PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said it is callous and cruel to continue their detention with the country entering a three-week lockdown in view of coronavirus outbreak.
Mehbooba, Naeem Akhtar, Ali Mohammad Sagar, Shah Faesal and two other senior leaders, who were slapped with Public Safety Act (PSA) last month, remained under detention while several dozen political leaders and workers remained lodged in jails within and outside J&K since August 5 after the Centre abrogated Article 370 and Article 35 A.
“It’s callous & cruel to continue to detain @MehboobaMufti & others at a time like this. There was never much justification to detain everyone in the 1st place & none at all to keep them detained as the country enters a 3 week lockdown. I hope @PMOIndia & @HMOIndia will release them,” Mr Abdullah wrote on micro-blogging site twitter.
Abdullah, who is Vice-President of National Conference (NC), was on Tuesday released after about eight months following revocation of his detention under PSA. The detention of Omar was revoked after PSA slapped on him was withdrawn by the J&K administration on Tuesday.
The release order of Mr Abdullah came less than two weeks after his father and NC president Farooq Abdullah was released following revocation of his detention under PSA after over seven months.
