Farooq Abdullah visits Mehbooba Mufti’s residence
Calls on her mother, daughter
Srinagar: National Conference (NC) President and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday evening paid a visit to the residence of Mehbooba Mufti at the ‘Fairview’ house located on the high security Gupkar road.
Sources said that the senior Abdullah arrived at the Mufti’s and had an hour long meeting with the detained PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti’s mother and daughter.
Farooq talked to the duo and expressed his solidarity with the family for going through a very bad phase of life.
The NC President had a detailed talk with Iltija Mufti, sources privy to the meeting said.
Though the meeting is being described as a courtesy call and a move to express solidarity with the family since the detention of Mehbooba Mufti, the move shows that the National Conference leader is reaching out to the major political parties in Jammu and Kashmir, including the PDP.
Though the Abdullah’s and the Mufti’s have taken on each other upfront during the electioneering over the years but the two families moved closer in August when rumours about scrapping of Article 370 and Art 35A, were making rounds.
Mehbooba at that time had gone to the senior Abdullah’s house where an all party meeting was held to announce measures to counter the central government’s plans.
Farooq on Saturday last had made a similar visit to Hari Niwas where his son Omar Abdullah is also detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
Farooq who was released from detention last week paid obeisance at his father Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s grave on Friday. Later his younger brother Mustafa Kamal, elder sister Khalida and her son Muzaffar came to meet him at his residence.
Senior Congress leader and leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad met with him on Saturday. Azad has been a vocal critic of the BJP for revoking Article 370 and detention of political leaders in Kashmir.
He had taken on Home Minister Amit Shah in the Parliament on August 5, 2019, when the Article 370 was revoked and Jammu and Kashmir was reorganised and split into two union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Notably, three former Chief Minister’s Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar and PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti were detained hours before the union government scrapped Article 370.
KV News
