As Normalcy Returns To Kashmir Valley, J&K Administration Releases Four Detained Politicians

With the situation in the Kashmir Valley returning to normalcy, the administration of the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) on Friday (17 January) released four politicians belonging to different political parties, reports The Hindu.

The four leaders had been under house arrest since the deoperationalisation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the former state into two separate UTs.

The freed leaders included Haji Abdul Rasheed, Nazir Ahmed Gurezi, Mohammad Abbas Wani and former minister Abdul Haq Khan.

On Thursday (16 January) five political leaders were released, including National Conference leaders Altaf Kaloo, Showkat Ganaie and Salman Sagar, and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders Nizamuddin Bhat and Mukhtar Bandh. Salman Sagar is a former mayor of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation.

With the release of the four leaders, there are 21 leaders in detention in the valley presently. These include three former chief ministers -- Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehboob Mufti.

Farooq Abdullah has been retained in his house on the Gupkar Road in Srinagar, which has been designated as a sub-jail. Omar Abdullah is detained in the Hari Niwas and Mehbooba Mufti at a government bungalow on the Maulana Residency road in Srinagar.

A total of 35 mainstream politicians were moved from the Srinagar based Centaur hotel to the MLA hostel in the city in November last year.

Last Friday (10 January), a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice N V Ramana had ordered the union territory administration to review all curbs that have been in place for over 161 days in Jammu and Kashmir.

(With inputs from IANS)