India formally arrests former IOK chief minister Farooq Abdullah

The pro-India politician had condemned India’s August 5 move and its intervention in the disputed valley

NEW DELHI: Farooq Abdullah, a former chief minister of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) seen as being pro-India, was formally arrested on Tuesday under a law allowing him to be held for up to two years without charge.



Abdullah, 81, was under house arrest since early August when India stripped IOK of its autonomy, imposed a security lockdown and detained dozens of local politicians including those who back the region being part of India.

But on Monday he was formally arrested under the Public Safety Act (PSA) and his home turned into a “judicial lockup", said Muneer Khan, a senior police official in IOK.

It is the first confirmed case of a Kashmiri politician being arrested under the PSA since India's August 5 move when it sent tens of thousands of troops to Kashmir and imposed a communications blackout.

India's national security adviser said earlier this month that a 'majority' of Kashmiris supported its move except for a "vocal minority".

But in the wake of the lockdown, even pro-India politicians have spoken out about New Delhi's intervention.

A day after the Indian government revoked IOK’s special status, Abdullah climbed a wall of his house to address the media and condemned the move. That was the last time he was seen in public.

"Why could they not wait? After 70 years, they have stabbed the people of the state. As soon as our gates open, our people will be out.

"We will fight, we will go to the courts. We're not gun-runners, grenade-throwers, stone-throwers, we believe in a peaceful resolution of things," Abdullah said.

The PSA was introduced in the 1970s – under Abdullah's father Sheikh Abdullah – to prevent timber smuggling but since an uprising against Indian rule erupted in 1989 it has been used to detain thousands of people, activists say.

The UN human rights office said in 2018 that special laws in IOK including the PSA "have created structures that obstruct the normal course of law, impede accountability and jeopardise the right to remedy for victims of human rights violations".

Amnesty International in June said that the PSA "circumvents the criminal justice system in IOK to undermine accountability, transparency, and respect for human rights".



Mobile phones and the internet remain cut off in much of the disputed Kashmir Valley, more than six weeks after New Delhi's move, which it claims is aimed at boosting the region's economy.

In the same period, India arrested more than 4,000 people, with nearly 200 civilians and 415 members of the security forces injured in hundreds of protests.