Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and Tarigami say they are under house arrest.
Leaders of the People’s Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), an amalgam of J&K’s regional parties, on Saturday accused the police of disallowing a proposed protest against a draft proposal of the J&K Delimitation Commission.Top leaders of the Gupkar alliance, including National Conference’s Omar Abdullah, Peoples Democratic Party’s Mehbooba Mufti and CPI(M)’s M.Y. Tarigami alleged they were detained in their houses by the security forces in Srinagar.“GOI trumpets scrapping Article 370 & dismembering J&K throughout the country but is deeply paranoid & intolerant when people of J&K want to protest against its disempowerment. For the umpteenth time, we’ve been placed under house arrest for trying to organise a peaceful protest,” Ms. Mufti said in a tweet.
Mr. Tarigami, who is also the Gupkar alliance spokesman, said the police closed the gates of his premises at “midnight.“Gates have been closed midnight. They have told security personnel and other staff (deployed at my premises) to inform me not to leave premises,” Mr. Tarigami said, adding, “We had decided to hold peaceful protest today against unconstitutional and divisive draft of Delimitation Commission. We wanted to register a protest.”Mr. Abdullah, in a sarcastic tweet, said, “Good morning and welcome to 2022. A new year with the same J&K police illegally locking people in their homes and an administration so terrified of normal democratic activity. Trucks parked outside our gates to scuttle the peaceful @JKPAGD sit-in protest. Some things never change.”He said the police even locked an internal gate to his father’s house. “Yet our leaders have the cheek to tell the world that India is the largest democracy, hah!!”The alliance was organising protests in Srinagar and Jammu against the draft proposal of the Delimitation Commission, which has called for an increase of six seats in the Jammu province and one in the Kashmir province.
