Farooq Holds 1st Meet With NC Leaders Since Article 370 Abrogation

Farooq Abdullah said the meet was organised to see if party colleagues were even able to step out of their homes.

The first meet of the Jammu and Kashmir’s National Conference (NC) party leaders was held on 20 August, days after the Jammu and Kashmir administration told the high court that no NC leader was under detention.

This was the first meeting of the party members since the abrogation of Article 370 on 5 August 2019, which stripped the state of its special status. Abdullah said the meet was organised to see if party colleagues were even able to step out of their homes or not.

They met at party president Farooq Abdullah’s residence, Abdullah told reporters that an all party meet was on the cards as well, The Indian Express reported.

It was at Abdullah’s residence that mainstream political party leaders had met and issued the Gupkar Declaration on 4 August 2019, as they resolved to protect the state’s special status. Abdullah has spent seven months under detention and was charged under the Public Safety Act.

“We will have a meeting on the Gupkar Declaration; that is our core issue,” he said according to The Indian Express.

Present at this meeting were senior party leaders, NC general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar, provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani, former J&K minister Abdul Rahim Rather, and Muhammad Shafi Uri. Other people who were present were MP Muhammad Akbar Lone, Hasnain Masoodi. party treasurer Shammu Oberoi and his political advisor to Mushtaq Guroo were present, The Indian Express reported.

“Today, they came out from their homes and came here. I am hopeful this is not for just one meeting. They should now be free people,” Abdullah said, briefing the media, Hindustan Times reported.

He thanked the courts and said that he hopes that the leaders present would now be free. “Not that they are allowed to step out for a day and then they are confined again. That shouldn’t happen. We will continue to meet more party members so we discuss developments in the UT and for its people,” he said The Indian Express reported.

On 13 July, Farooq and his son Omar had filed a habeas corpus petition in court saying that several leaders of the party were behind held in “brazen violation” of constitutional guarantees of the right to liberty.