Barring six, all leaders to be released this month: Report

Srinagar, Jan 3: After being detained for over five months, the Jammu and Kashmir administration is set to release all political leaders barring six this month, media reports said on Friday.

Quoting sources, Zee News reported that the six leaders who would still be kept under detention are PDP leaders Mehbooba Mufti, Naeem Akhtar, and Waheed Parra; National Conference leaders Umar Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah, and Ali Mohammad Sagar.

Mehbooba is detained at a government house in Srinagar, while, Omar is lodged at Hari Niwas. Farooq Abdullah is detained at his house in Gupkar road, Srinagar, which has been declared a sub-jail.

58 political leaders were detained earlier out of which 26 are currently held at the MLA hostel which has been turned into a sub-jail.

The home ministry had said that the release of these leaders will be done by the administration in the J&K as per the situation. Earlier on 30th December, five leaders from the national conference and PDP were released by the authorities.

The Central government had detained several mainstream leaders to avoid mass mobilisation against the decision that removed the special status of Jammu & Kashmir and divided it into two union territories.

In accordance with the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, J&K along with its democratic institutions were reorganised into two Union Territories – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh following Narendra Modi’s decision to abrogate article 370 which accorded special status to J&K on August 5.

The two union territories came into existence at the stroke of midnight on 31 October.