Srinagar
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah visited his father Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s grave, located on the banks of the Dal Lake at Hazratbal in Srinagar, shortly after being released detention on Friday.
Reports said Dr Farooq was accompanied by his wife Moile, grandson Adeem and other members of the family. Abdullah offered prayers and spent some time at the grave of his father.
He could not offer prayers on his father’s death anniversary on December 5 last year as he was in detention under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA).
Immediately after his release, the media was allowed to meet him at his Gupkar residence, which was turned into a sub-jail, Dr Farooq accompanied by his British wife Mollie and daughter Safia Abdullah thanked media for highlighting the political issues and detention of leaders, common masses for prayed for his release and his colleagues’, member Parliaments for their efforts to release him.
Talking to reporters at his residence earlier on Friday after the PSA slapped on him was revoked by the Jammu and Kashmir administration, Abdullah said, “I am grateful to every one who prayed for us but this freedom is not complete.”
“Freedom will be complete when all leaders Omar, Mehbooba ji and all the others who are in prisons of the state or outside the state are released. I hope government will take action soon to release every one…,” he said.
Farooq Abdullah had been under house arrested since August 5, 2019, the day New Delhi scrapped Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and bifurcated the state into two union territories — Jammu and Ladakh.
Dr Abdullah was the first pro-India politician from the Kashmir Valley to be booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) that enables the State to detain any person in Jammu and Kashmir for up to two years without a trial or charge, merely on the assumption that they are a threat to law and order and public safety.
The detaining authority is also not required to reveal any facts “which it considers being against the public interest to disclose” regarding the detention.