Drama unfolded in Srinagar on Thursday as police prevented former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah from meeting Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, who had come to protest against the arrest of Doda MLA Mehraj Malik.
The police had locked the gates of the Circuit House in Sonwar, where Singh and other AAP members were staying. Singh had planned to address a press conference and lead a protest march against Malik’s detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
Farooq Abdullah, a three-time chief minister and president of the National Conference, was stopped at the Circuit House gate. Expressing dismay, he said, “This is the situation here ... there is an elected government in place but the LG seems to own it. The nation must be made aware of this situation. A man wants to talk within the Constitution but he is not allowed to ... He (Singh) has been my friend in Parliament and you are not permitting even to exchange courtesies. This is not your fault but of the LG.”
On the other side of the locked gates, Singh climbed up and questioned the police for not allowing Abdullah to meet him. “He is (former) MP, several times been the CM and I am also an MP ... what is the problem? What is the crime? Why are you not allowing us to meet?” he asked.
Meanwhile, police deployment outside the Circuit House foiled AAP’s protest plan. When Singh and party workers tried to step out, the gates remained shut. In a video message, Singh slammed the police action as “dictatorship”.
He said, “Raising our voice in a democracy is our constitutional and democratic right. Today, we were holding protest against the arrest of Mehraj Malik and there was a press conference also. But, the height of dictatorship is that there is a huge deployment of police and we are not being allowed to move outside? The police was not even ready to tell us the reason of stopping us.”
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"This is dictatorship as the administration is not even ready to tell us the reasons," he added.
Referring to the party’s planned press conference and protest, the AAP leader questioned whether such activities were considered a crime in a democracy. “Is it a crime in a democracy to raise voice against illegal arrest? The height of dictatorship is that they are not ready to tell even a Rajya Sabha member the reason for stopping us,” he said.
Malik, who won the Doda seat in the 2024 Assembly elections by more than 4,500 votes, was detained on Monday under the PSA for allegedly disturbing public order. He has been lodged in Kathua district jail. This marks the first time a sitting MLA in Jammu and Kashmir has been booked under the stringent law, which allows detention without charge or trial for up to two years in some cases.
The standoff in Srinagar has heightened tensions, with the AAP accusing the administration of silencing dissent and opposition voices in the region.
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