Janjivan Bureau / Chandigarh : Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti and National Conference working president Omar Abdullah have been taken into preventive custody, officials said on Monday evening.
The officials said Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference leaders Sajjad Lone and Imran Ansari were among other leaders who were detained.
A detention order for Mehbooba Mufti, signed by Srinagar’s executive magistrate first class, said that she was being taken into preventive custody because her actvities was “likely to cause breach of peace” and may “likely lead to serious law and order situation” in the Kashmir. The order also claimed that Mufti and her supporters were going meet and hold a “procession” in public “because of which there was also a strong apprehension of deteriorating law and order” in the Valley.
The order said Mufti had been taken to ‘Hari Niwas’ guest house, where she will be kept until further orders. There’s no word on where Abdullah has been taken. Both leaders have been chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir.
This is the latest of the rapid but tense developments the state has been seeing since the last few days. The two leaders were put under house arrest on Sunday—hours before the central government announced it was doing away with the controversial Article 370 of the Indian Constitution and splitting the state into two union territories.
In the run up to Monday’s developments, the state saw increased security deployment. Authorities imposed restrictions in the Kashmir Valley and cut off internet connections on Sunday.
