I Was Detained At My House, Amit Shah Is Lying, Says Farooq Abdullah

In an emotional outburst, the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah said he "broke the door" to come out and speak to the media.

Outlook Web Bureau

Updated on: 6 August 2019 4:45 pm

After Home Minister Amit Shah Tuesday told Lok Sabha that National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah was not placed under house arrest, the former chief minister refuted the claims, saying "I was detained at my house."

Farooq Abdullah slammed the central government's decision to abrogate Article 370. He asserted that a "dictatorial" authority had been invoked and not a "democratic" one in Jammu and Kashmir.

Responding to NCP's Supriya Sule in Lok Sabha, Union Home minister Amit Shah said, "He (Abdullah) is neither under detention nor under arrest. He is at his home on his own will."

When Sule wondered whether the National Conference leader was unwell, Shah said it was up to the doctors to say. "I can't carry out the treatment, it was up to doctors," he said.

Abdullah broke down while speaking to NDTV about the government's decision and said, "They divided regions, will they divide hearts too? Will they divide Hindus and Muslims? I thought my India was for all, everyone who believes in secular, unity."

Abdullah, 81, said he knows only of his son Omar Abdullah and another former CM Mehbooba Mufti's arrest that too through the media.

"There is no written order but we have been placed under house arrest. We believe in law, we are not stone-pelters or killers. We have never used the path of gun. We have always used Mahatma Gandhi's way...Why was this done? What was the need," he said.

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"Why would I stay inside my house on my own will when my state is being burnt, when my people are being executed in jails? This is not the India I believe in," Abdullah said.

"It is sad that the Home Minister is lying that I was not under house arrest," he added.

Emphasising that the guarantee of Article 370 was in India's Constitution, he said, "Dictatorial authority has been invoked and not a democratic authority that we thought they will invoke. I don't know how many have been arrested. Nobody is allowed to come in or go out, we are under house arrest," he said.

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Abdullah said that the people of J&K will fight for democracy and against the Centre's move to abrogate Article 370.

Former chief ministers of the state Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and other political leaders including Sajjad Lone were detained on Monday, hours after the central government abrogated Article 370.

The government revoked some provisions of the Article 370 to take away Jammu and Kashmir's special status, and proposed bifurcation of the state into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, a bold and far-reaching decision that seeks to redraw the map and future of a region at the centre of a protracted militancy movement.

Fulfilling an electoral promise of the BJP less than 90 days after the Modi 2.0 government took power, Shah had announced the decision in the Rajya Sabha, which approved both the resolution and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation bill.

(With PTI Inputs)