india

Updated: Mar 09, 2020 18:27 IST

The Opposition parties in Jammu and Kashmir have demanded the release of all political detainees, including three former chief ministers. The leaders continue to be in detention since August, 2019, when the Centre abrogated Article 370 and stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its special status.

“There are growing assaults on democratic norms, fundamental rights and civic liberties of citizens,” a joint statement by Opposition leaders said. “As a result, dissent is not only being stifled, but the avenues of raising critical voices are also being systematically muted.”

“Nothing exemplifies this more starkly than the continuing detention on flimsiest of grounds of three former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers for over seven months,” the statement further said.

“There is nothing in the past records of these three leaders to lend credence to the Modi government’s false and self-serving claim that they pose a threat to ‘public safety’ in J&K or that they have endangered national interests with their activities,” the Opposition leaders said in the statement.

The three chief ministers - Nationalist Conference (NC) leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, and Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Mehbooba Mufti - have been kept under preventive detention in their houses in Srinagar. There have been demands from their respective parties to release these politicians.

NC leader Akbar Lone had earlier said that the continued detention of these leaders has created a “dangerous vacuum” reversing all the gains of the past two decades by denigrating mainstream politics in Kashmir.

Sara Abdullah Pilot, the sister of Omar Abdullah, has even filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking the release of the former chief minister. The habeas corpus petition demands the physical presence of Abdullah.

The Centre has been releasing leaders from the Valley in phases, but the three chief ministers are still under detention. Three leaders of NC and one of the PDP were released in February this year, almost six months after they were put under detention. The NC’s Abdul Majeed Larmi, Ghulam Nabi Bhat and Mohd Shafi were released from the MLA Hostel in Srinagar by the Jammu and Kashmir administration.

A few politicians were released in January this year.