india

Updated: Sep 21, 2019 05:44 IST

Former PDP leaders Imran Ansari and Khursheed Alam along with Syed Akhoon of the National Conference, who were detained after the abrogation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 on August 5, were released on Friday, officials said.

The political leaders were kept at the Centaur Hotel, along with other political detainees from the state, they said.

Akhoon was released on health grounds while Alam was “temporarily released” in view of his brother’s death recently, they said.

Ansari, who was among the first PDP leaders to rebel against party chief Mehbooba Mufti after her government lost power, left for New Delhi on Friday for medical treatment, they said.

He was shifted from Centaur Hotel to his house, before Muharram, where his detention continued.

He was elected from the Pattan assembly constituency in the 2014 polls.

More than a thousand people, including politicians, separatists, activists and lawyers, were detained after the August-5 decision of the central government to abrogate the special status, according to unofficial estimates.

Three former chief ministers — Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti — were among the detainees. Around 100 were sent to the jails outside Jammu and Kashmir.

Farooq has been detained under the Public Safety Act, while other politicians were mostly detained under different sections of the CrPC.