New Delhi:Hours after an unverified picture of former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah sporting a greyish-white long beard emerged on social media, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Saturday expressed shock and called Abdullah’s detention unfortunate. Mamata reshared the photo on Twitter and said, “I could not recognize Omar in this picture. I am feeling sad. Unfortunate that this is happening in our democratic country. When will this end?”
On January 15, the former chief minister was shifted to a house near his official residence, 163 days after he was taken into preventive custody following the abrogation of Article 370 provisions.
Along with his father Farooq Abdullah and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, Omar was among the hundreds of political, social activists, lawyers and businessmen detained after the centre abrogated Article 370 on August 5 and divided Jammu and Kashmir state into two union territories — Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.
Omar, Mehbooba and other politicians were detained under section 107 of Code of Criminal Procedure which allows authorities and an executive magistrate to put any person under preventive custody for a period of six months if he receives information that the person is likely to commit a breach of the peace or disturb the public tranquillity.