Jammu & Kashmir: Congress State Party Chief, Spokesperson Detained As Administration Begins To Ease Restrictions

Former Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) chief minister (CM) and senior leader of the Congress party Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday (16 August) cried foul over security personnel taking a senior party leader Ravinder Sharma into preventive detention, reports Asian News International (ANI).

Sharma’s detention came after the security personnel put the Jammu Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JK PCC) chief, Ghulam Ahmed Mir into a house arrest. Sharma is the official spokesperson for the party's state unit.

Protesting against the detentions and condemning the move, Azad asserted that the government's move was in total violation of democratic norms. He further lamented why the leaders of the opposition parties from J&K are not allowed to hold press conferences.

While lamenting over the detentions of his fellow party members, Azad demanded that the Government should release the former chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah and all other senior political leaders who have been kept under preventive detention to maintain the law and order situation in the state.

Meanwhile, former party president, Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to comment on the detention of his partymen in J&K and said, "With this unprovoked action against a national political party, the Govt has delivered another body blow. When will this madness end?"