Farooq Abdullah neither detained nor arrested, says Amit Shah

Aug 6, 2019

New Delhi: Allaying concerns of a few Lok Sabha members over the absence of Farooq Abdullah from the House, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday that the J&K leader was perfectly fine and was not attending the session out of his own free will.

Shah said Farooq Abdullah was neither under house arrest, nor had he been detained.

“I’m saying this for the fourth time, and I have the patience to say it for the 10th time, Farooq Abdullah has neither been detained, nor arrested,” the Home Minister said in the Lok Sabha during discussions on the resolution revoking Article 370 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019.

Shah’s comments followed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) member Supriya Sule’s remarks in which she said that she was not feeling good to find Farooq Abdullah absent as she used to sit next to him in the House.

When Sule wanted to know if the National Conference leader was unwell, Shah said he could not say anything about illness as it was for the doctor to check and find.

“I can’t carry out the treatment, it is up to the doctors,” he said.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also expressed concern about Farooq Abdullah and wanted to know where he was.

“Why we think it is indeed a black day? Because two former J&K CMs, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, are under arrest and the whereabouts of our own colleague Farooq Abdullah are still unclear. We want to know where he is,” he said.

Several leaders in the Valley, including Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah have been put under house arrest as a precautionary measure ahead of the Presidential order to revoke the Article 70.