Kashmiri leader Omar Abdullah freed by Indian authorities after near-eight-month detention

INDIAN-HELD-KASHMIR: Omar Abdullah, the former chief minister of India-occupied Kashmir, was released on Tuesday after a near eight-month-long detention in Srinagar by Indian authorities.

Abdullah, along with Mehbooba Mufti — also a former chief minister — had been placed under house arrest in August last year after the BJP-led Indian government revoked Article 370 of the Indian constitution that granted special status to the occupied region.

The two politicians were initially detained under a law that allowed a maximum imprisonment of six months. When that period was about to expire in February, it was extended under the draconian Public Safety Act, which allows detention without charges for up to two years.

Following his release, after a period counted by Abdullah as 232 days, the Kashmiri leader said that the world is “very different” from the one that existed on August 5, 2019 — the day he was arrested.

232 days after my detention today I finally left Hari Niwas. It’s a very different world today to the one that existed on 5th August 2019. pic.twitter.com/Y44MNwDlNz

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) March 24, 2020

Abdullah’s father, Farooq Abdullah, a member of the Indian parliament and also a former chief minister, was released earlier this month.