Release 3 former CMs of J & K immediately, demand Opposition leaders

A group of opposition leaders in a statement has sought the immediate release of three former Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir -- Mehbooba Mufti, Farooq Abdullah, and Omar Abdullah, who have been under the house arrest for over seven months.

"It is our bounden duty to demand the immediate release of the three former Chief Ministers of J & K and all the other political detainees," reads the statement, which Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar released on Monday on his Twitter handle.

The statement says that "India and its Constitution have always stood for 'unity in diversity' with everybody's views respected, honoured and heard."

"However, in the government of Narendra Modi, democratic dissent is being muzzled by coercive administrative action, which has threatened the basic ideals of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity as enshrined in our Constitution."

The statement says that "nothing exemplifies the more starkly than the continuing detention on flimsiest of grounds, of three former Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir -- Dr Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti -- for over seven months."

It also states that while there are no past records of the three former CMs that give credence to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'false and self-serving claim,' the BJP had in the past aligned with the three leaders both at the Centre (with the National Conference) and in the state (with the People's Democratic Party).

The statement has been issued by Pawar along with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Union Minister Arun Shourie, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury, CPI leader D Raja, former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, and RJD leader Manoj Kumar Jha.

The Jammu and Kashmir Administration had on February 5 invoked the Public Safety Act (PSA) against former Chief Ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah. The duo were detained after the Central government abrogated Article 370 last year.