Shah Faesal detained at Delhi airport, sent back to Srinagar

Delhi : Former IAS-turned-politician and founder of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement, Shah Faesal was detained at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on Wednesday when he was about to fly abroad. He has been sent back to Srinagar where he will be kept under house arrest.

According to the sources, Mr Faesal was detained under the Public Safety Act (PST) when he was leaving for Istanbul (Turkey) this morning.

With this, Mr Faesal now joins the list of politicians including Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti who have been kept under the house arrest amid curfews and communication being cut-off in the valley.

The three leaders —Farooq, Omar and Mehbooba—were detained after the Centre revoked Artcile 370 from J&K and proposed that the state be bifurcated into the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.

Mr Faesal has been vocal of the Modi government’s step of revoking Article 370 from J&K. He had earlier slammed the Central government for the lockdown in J&K. Mr Faesal said that Kashmiris in the valley are ‘incarcerated’ like never before.

Yesterday, the former Civil Servant in his tweet wrote, “Kashmir will need a long, sustained, non-violent political mass movement for restoration of political rights. Abolition of Article 370 has finished the mainstream. Constitutionalists are gone. So you can either be a stooge or a separatist now. No shades of grey (sic).