House arrest then immediate release of separatists is 'bizarre', says Omar

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday slammed the Centre and the state government for the house arrests and release of separatist leaders ahead of their planned meet with Pakistan's National Security Advisor Sartaz Aziz and said the whole thing was bizarre.

The National Conference leader hit out at the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, for acting on the orders of the Centre and putting the Hurriyat leaders under arrest.

"Shame on Mufti Syed for arresting on demand. He had no business following his masters orders & detaining the Hurriyat leaders like this," Omar tweeted.

Separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and were placed under house arrest while Yasin Malik was arrested. A police raid was conducted at separatist leader Asiya Andrabi's residence in Srinagar.

"J&K State governments in the past have NEVER detained the APHC leaders so as to prevent them from visiting the Pak High Commission. If the centre was so keen to prevent the Hurriyat leaders from meeting Sartaj Aziz they should've been told to detain them themselves." Omar said in his tweet.

The Pak High Commission had invited separatist leaders to Delhi to meet Pakistani envoy Abdul Basit and NSA Sartaz Aziz, who is coming for talks with his Indian counterpart in the national capital on Sunday.

The former chief minister asserted that he had never seen an Indo-Pak dialogue where both sides were so keen to 'sabotage' it. He added that both nations were competing to give reasons to call off the NSA-level talks.

"Shelling, Infiltration, terror attacks & now Hurriyat arrests, clearly no side wants to talk & yet neither side has the guts to call it off. It's so obvious that Ufa & now these planned NSA talks are under international pressure with both India and Pakistan hoping the other will pull out," he said.

The Pak High Commission had invited separatist leaders to Delhi to meet Pakistani envoy Abdul Basit and NSA Sartaz Aziz, who is coming for talks with his Indian counterpart in the national capital on Sunday.

Earlier, two out of the three Separatist leaders, who were put under house arrest ahead of the NSA-level talks, were released within two hours by the Jammu and Kashmir Government.