Srinagar
A 10-member delegation of the Peoples Democratic Republic was on Sunday granted permission to meet party chief Mehbooba Mufti on Monday, hours after a National Conference delegation met their president Farooq Abdullah and vice-president Omar Abdullah, NDTV reported.
Mehbooba Mufti and the Abdullahs were among a number of political leaders from the Valley placed under detention on the eve of August 5, when the centre scrapped the special status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and bifurcated it into two union territories.
After meeting the Abdullahs earlier today, senior National Conference leaders Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi told NDTV that they had only come to enquire about their well-being — not discuss politics. Omar Abdullah, sporting a beard, clicked selfies with the leaders during the meeting.
The government had relaxed the restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir days after the announcement of the Block Development elections. While all detained political leaders in Jammu were released, Farooq Khan, advisor to Governor Satya Pal Malik, said the Kashmiri leaders would be released in a phased manner.
On Saturday, BJP leader Ram Madhav also expressed a similar sentiment. “We want normal political activity to be restored in the state. But it has to be normal political activity,” he added.
Although Mehbooba Mufti does not have access to social media, her daughter Iltija continues to make critical observations on the Kashmir scenario from her Twitter handle with “due authorisation”.
Two weeks ago, a tweet posted from her handle criticised the manner in which a “move ostensibly taken to secure the special interests of Jammu and Kashmir” was being cheered by everybody but the people it was supposed to benefit, NDTV reported.
