Jammu & Kashmir: 3 Detained National Conference Leaders Released After Almost 6 Months

Three National Conference (NC) leaders were released by the Jammu and Kashmir administration on Sunday as part of the ongoing exercise to free detainees who were detained after the Centre abrogated Article 370 and bifurcated the state into two union territories on August 5. The leaders freed included Abdul Majeed Larmi, Ghulam Nabi Bhat and Dr Mohd Shafi. Another leader Mohd Yusuf Bhat has also been released today.

Earlier, prominent Kashmiri leaders advocated the release of all political detainees, including three former chief ministers, as a goodwill gesture.

Ghulam Hassan Mir and Mohammad Dilawar Mir, both former ministers, also demanded the restoration of broadband services to mediapersons and traders besides compensation to those involved in the agriculture and horticulture sectors.

“People are in preventive detention and it would be good if all of them, including the former chief ministers, are released as a goodwill gesture,” Hassan, who is the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Party Nationalist, told reporters.

He said some of the people, who are lodged in jails outside the Union Territory, should be brought back if their detention is imperative on security reasons.

The duo, who was part of a group of former ministers and legislators led by Altaf Bukhari who met the Lt Governor GC Murmu early this month, also batted for the restoration of broadband services to mediapersons and businessmen.

The leaders also asked the Union government to tell the positives that have emerged following the scrapping of the special status of J-K in August last year.

In response to a question on the week-long public outreach programme by the BJP, he said, “We should not feel obsessed with it. If they have come on a visit, it is good and they will themselves see the ground situation. The question will be raised what they have done after their visit.”

On the possibility of assembly elections, he said it is prem ature to talk about it at the moment because the assembly seats have to be increased in accordance with the reorganisation act.

“Unless the delimitation commission is set and its report is submitted and accepted, the talk of elections is not right.”

With PTI Inputs