Gul Owais
Srinagar, Sep 3: The maiden meeting called by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders post abrogation of Article 370 last year was on Thursday foiled by the authorities.
The PDP had called the meeting 15 days after the National Conference (NC) patron and incumbent parliamentarian Dr Farooq Abdullah was allowed to meet party leaders at his Gupkar residence here, the PDP leaders had decided to hold a meeting at party headquarters in Srinagar to discuss the ongoing political situation and party affairs.
However, the leaders from PDP said they were not allowed to attend the meeting today.
Abdul Rehman Veeri, PDP vice president and former minister told ‘Precious Kashmir’ he as well as his colleagues were not allowed to reach the party headquarters where the meeting was scheduled to be held.
Veeri said, “We had sought permission from the government and had urged the authorities to provide security to us. But, our meeting was foiled, which is unfortunate.”
Khurshid Aalam, PDP leader and former MLC said that he tried to come out of his house today to attend a meeting. “Soon after I tried to attend a meeting, I was not allowed to come out of my house,” he said.
He added the party had written to the SSP security also to seek permission for a meeting, but despite that the meeting was foiled while the leaders who were scheduled to attend the meeting including him were placed under house detention. “We have not decided anything about the next meeting yet. We will take a decision in this regard soon,” he said.
Pertinently, the meeting was called by the PDP leaders amid the continuous house detention of party chief Mehbooba Mufti.
The party has not held any meeting in Kashmir post abrogation Article 370 last year while in Jammu division a number of meetings by the PDP leaders have taken place till date.
