CPI welcomes Farooq Abdullah's release, says other political detainees should also be freed

The CPI on Friday welcomed the release of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah and demanded that other political detainees also be freed.

The party also questioned the government's intention behind not releasing the other detainees.

"We welcome the release of Farooq Abdullah. We demand that all former chief ministers and political detainees must be released. We are questioning the government's intention of (behind) not releasing other two chief ministers and political detainees," Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary D Raja said.

Farooq Abdullah, who was under detention at his home in Srinagar for over seven months, was released earlier in the day.

The 82-year-old National Conference leader was initially taken into preventive detention on August 5 last year, the day the Centre revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, and later slapped with the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA).

Abdullah, a Lok Sabha MP from Srinagar, was the first chief minister to have been booked under the PSA.

A host of other political leaders, including Farooq Abdullah's son Omar and Peoples Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti remain lodged in various prisons in Jammu and Kashmir.