NEW DELHI SRINAGAR: F arooq Abdullah on Friday said that he would raise his voice in Parliament on the nullification of Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution to revoke J&K's special status.
The 82-year-old former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, who had been booked under the Public Safety Act, was released on Friday after seven months in detention.
T here had been reports of a political outreach to those held in detention at their homes with former RAW chief A S Dulat meeting Abdullah. There were indications that NC and PDP, the two main regional parties in the Valley, might consider participating in panchayat elections if their members were released. There was also a limit, in political terms, to the length of detention, particularly as the situation has been largely peaceful.
"T he release of Farooq Abdullah and further plans to review detention orders of Mehbooba and Omar under J&K Public Safety Act (PSA) indicate the situation in J&K has returned to complete normalcy," said a central government functionary. The detention order issued under PSA against Mehbooba and Omar in early February has a validity of three months.
A bdullah's release comes as there are indications that the Centre might consider scheduling panchayat polls that were put off recently. The emergence of Apni Party under former PDP member Altaf Bukhari, with the support of some 40 former legislators, has stirred the waters in the Valley and given NC and PDP something to think about.
Th ough the NC chairman had been under house arrest since August 5 last year, it wasn't until September 15 that the administration invoked PSA to extend his custody by three months. The move came hours before the Supreme Court was to hear a petition filed by MDMK's Vaiko, challenging Abdullah's detention. On December 13, the administration issued a fresh order extending his detention by another three months.
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