Mehbooba, Sajjad Lone, Mirwaiz Umar decry their ‘house arrest’

STC NEWS DESK
SRINAGAR, SEPTEMBER 18 (STC): Various local political leaders have claimed that they were placed under house arrest to prevent them from visiting Sopore in Baramulla district to offer condolences on the demise of prominent political leaders and former Hurriyat Conference chairman Abdul Gani Bhat.
Prof. Bhat died at his Sopore residence in Wednesday evening after a prolonged illness.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti claimed she was put under house arrest to prevent her from visiting
“The decision to place the political leadership under house arrest today, simply to stop us from visiting Sopore to offer condolences on the demise of Professor Abdul Gani Bhat, lays bare the harsh and undemocratic reality in Jammu and Kashmir,” she said in a post on X.
Peoples’ Conference chief and MLA Handwara, Sajad Lone also claimed that he was not allowed to travel to Sopore.
“I have been put under house arrest in order to prevent me from visiting Botingoo, the ancestral village of Proffesor Ghani sahib. I fail to understand what is the need for this. Professor sahib was a pacifist and literally long retired. A final good bye is something which we all deserved,” Lone said.
The current chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, also claimed he was put under house arrest late Wednesday night.
In a post on his X handle, Mirwaiz stated: “It pains me beyond words that the authorities compelled the family of Prof. Sb to conclude his ‘janazah’ hurriedly. I have been locked inside my home, and being denied the right to walk with him in his final journey,” Mirwaiz said on X.
He said his association with Bhat spanned 35 years of friendship and guidance.
“So many others, too, longed to pay their last respects. To be deprived of even the solace of participating in his ‘janazah’ and bid him a final goodbye is an unbearable cruelty,” he said.
(Straight Talk Communications)