Congress condemns arrest of its J-K Cong chief, preventive detention of spokesman

The Congress on Friday condemned the house arrest of its Jammu and Kashmir chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir and the preventive detention of its senior party leader Ravinder Sharma. The alleged police action against the Congress leaders came hours after the state administration announced it would slowly lift restrictions in the region.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad claimed that party's chief spokesperson of Jammu and Kashmir unit and former MLC Ravinder Sharma was prevented from holding a press conference today and was taken to an undisclosed location.

Condemning the incident, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "I strongly condemn the arrest of our J-K PCC Chief, Shri Ghulam Ahmed Mir and spokesperson, Shri Ravinder Sharma in Jammu today. With this unprovoked action against a national political party, the Govt has delivered democracy another body blow. When will this madness end?"

In a press statement, senior Congress leader Azad said, "This action of the state government is in total violation of any democratic norms."

Azad continued, "On one side the state and central government are asserting that Jammu is normal and people are celebrating, while at the same time the leaders of opposition parties are not even allowed to address the press conferences."

Azad has also demanded the immediate release of National Conference leader Omar Abdullah and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti, and other senior leaders of all the political parties including Sharma.

Opposition parties have been attacking the government's decision to scrap Article 370 that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Earlier in the day Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam said: "Keeping in view the evolving situation and cooperation of people, we are now taking measures to ease the restrictions in a gradual calibrated manner after the reports that today's Friday prayers has gone quite peacefully. There would be easing of restrictions in the next few days in an orderly manner and restriction on movement would be removed area by area.