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Quiet lonely Eid for 3 ex-CMs in Kashmir

KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 8/13/2019 10:44:53 AM

Omar-Mehbooba spar in detention over BJP

SRINAGAR, Aug 12: It was a quiet, lonely Eid for former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti in detention on Monday, quite unlike previous years when their homes were full of celebratory crowds of supporters, friends and family members, officials said.
While Farooq continued to be at his residence, Omar and Mehbooba, who both were earlier detained at the Hari Niwas Palace last week, spent Eid at separate locations where they were detained after they got involved in a nasty argument over their respective roles in the rise of the BJP in the state.
The three leaders were detained after the Centre revoked Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 and proposed that the state be bifurcated into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
On Monday, a week after the government's announcement, their homes in the city's posh Gupkar Road were deserted with only a security vehicle stationed outside. National Conference president Farooq Abdullah is under house arrest at his residence. However, his son and party vice president Omar Abdullah was shifted to Cheshma Shahi Hut from Hari Niwas Palace where Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba was also detained after they locked horns over BJP.
Initially both were detained at the Hari Niwas Palace but officials said they could no longer be housed at the same venue.
“Both were accusing each other of getting BJP into Jammu and Kashmir. At one point, Omar shouted at Mehbooba, taunting her and the late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed for aligning with BJP between 2015 and 2018,” an official of the hospitality and protocol department was quoted saying by agencies reports.
“Mehbooba reminded Omar that his father Farooq Abdullah had an alliance with BJP under Atal Behari Vajpayee. She told him loudly, 'You were even junior minister for external affairs in the Vajpayee government',” the official added.
The PDP chief also allegedly blamed Omar's grandfather Sheikh Abdullah for the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India in 1947. At that time, Omar was staying on the ground floor at Hari Niwas while Mehbooba had been accommodated on the first floor. Later, Omar was shifted to a forest department accommodation in Cheshmashahi while Mehbooba remained at Hari Niwas Palace.
Several political leaders, who were picked up on August 5, offered prayers at the Centaur Hotel here, the officials said. The government provided them with a 'maulvi', they added.