Jailing Farooq Abdullah unlawful, says M K Stalin

CHENNAI: Expressing deep concern at the National Conference president, member of Lok Sabha and three-time former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Dr Farooq Abdullah being detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA) and converting his house in Srinagar into a jail on Monday, the DMK president M.K. Stalin on Tuesday termed it as illegal, arbitrary and totally unacceptable.

In a tweet, Mr. Stalin said, “the act of placing one of the senior most political leaders in jail within a jail is excessive, arbitrary and unlawful.”

The DMK had recently organised a demonstration by major opposition parties in Parliament at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, demanding the immediate release of all political leaders in J and K under detention, following the August 5 developments when Centre scrapped Article 370 that conferred special powers on Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into two union territories of J and K and Ladakh respectively.

The DMK was the first opposition party in Tamil Nadu to condemn the “murder of democracy” in J and K and had urged to keep the Presidential orders in abeyance until a popularly elected government was in place in J and K.
Dr Farooq Abdullah was invited by Mr. Stalin for unveiling of the statue of the late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi at the office of the party organ 'Murasoli' in Chennai on August 7 this year, the first death anniversary of 'Kalaignar'. But before that Dr Abdullah and other leaders were placed under arrest in Srinagar.

The subsequent detention of Dr Farooq Abdullah under PSA has come yesterday, even as the Supreme Court was to take up hearing on a habeas corpus petition filed by the MDMK leader and Rajya Sabha MP, Mr. Vaiko seeking the NC leader's release and presence and to allow him to participate in a MDMK party conference in Chennai in connection with C N Annadurai's birth anniversary on September 15.