Authorities swung into action on Tuesday and arrested nearly half dozen women activists including former J&K chief minister DR Farooq Abdullah’s sister and daughter for staging protest against the abrogation of Article 370.
According to reports, the National Conference chief’s sister Suraiya and his daughter Safiya were leading a group of women activists who were protesting the August 5 move of the central government when they were detained.
Wearing black arm bands and holding placards, the protesters were not allowed by the police to assemble in the city centre Lal Chowk and asked to disperse. The Central Reserve Police Force’s women personnel rounded the protesters into police vehicles when they refused.
They also tried to stop them from distributing a statement to the media covering the protest.
“We, the women of Kashmir, disapprove the unilateral decision taken by the government of India to revoke Article 370, 35A and downgrade and split the state of Jammu and Kashmir,” they said in the statement.
The women said they feel “betrayed, humiliated and violated as people” as they demanded the restoration of civil liberties and fundamental rights of the citizens.
Detainees must be immediately released and demilitarisation of rural and urban areas must be ended, they also demanded.
“We express our outrage against the national media for their false/misleading coverage of ground realities in Kashmir,” they added.
The detainees were later shifted to Srinagar’s central jail.
Jammu and Kashmir is currently under President's rule. The state Assembly was dissolved on November 2018 after the ruling coalition between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) fell apart in June 2018.
The Valley has remained under lockdown for over two months since the abrogation of the Article 370 by the BJP-led Centre and a sweeping crackdown on not just militants but even mainstream parties like National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party with former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti under detention.
An array of political leaders, businessmen, lawyers, activists and others have also been confined to Centaur Hotel on the banks of Dal Lake which has been declared as a sub-jail by the state administration. On Thursday, four leaders including former lawmakers were released from the sub jail.
The government has not made any announcement yet on the charges under which the mainstream leaders and others have been arrested, and whether and when they will be released, although the Thursday’s release seems to pave way for restoration of political process in the state.
Relatives of Omar and Mehbooba recently were allowed to meet the leaders at Hari Niwas Palace and a guest house at Cheshma Shahi where the two leaders are being held respectively. Leaders of NC also met the party chief Dr Farooq Abdullah who has been held under the Public Safety Act.
Earlier, the daughter of Mehbooba, Iltija Mufti, had written to the home minister that she was fearing for her life and that she was being denied permission to meet her mother who she said has been confined to ‘one room’. She however later met her mother and has been lately sending out tweets from her mother’s account.