After NC, PDP leaders to meet detained chief Mehbooba on Monday

Over two months after being detained, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba will meet a party delegation from Jammu on Monday (October 7) in Srinagar, reported news agency PTI on Sunday (October 6).

The PDP delegation was granted permission by the state administration on Sunday to meet the detained former chief minister. It will be led by the party’s general secretary Ved Mahajan, the report quoted former PDP legislator and spokesperson Firdous Tak as saying.

Tak said that the party had requested Governor Satya Pal Malik to allow a party delegation from Jammu to meet the detained leader and that they were conveyed that “the permission has been granted.”

Also read | NC delegation meets Farooq, Omar Abdullah in house arrest for two months

“A meeting is going on to finalise the delegation which will leave for Srinagar to meet the party president tomorrow (Monday). Most probably, the strength of the delegation will be of 15 or 18 members,” Tak was quoted as saying.

Tak, who will be part of the delegation, said that after the restrictions were lifted on party leaders, a meeting was convened on Sunday morning and it was decided to approach the Governor to seek permission to visit the detained leader.

Around 400 political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, including Mufti and the Abdullahs, have been under house arrest since August 4 night in the wake of the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution on August 5.

The development comes hours after a 15-member delegation of the National Conference (NC) met its detained leaders Farooq and Omar Abdullah in Srinagar on Sunday.

Also read | US Senator denied nod for Kashmir visit, says India must be open

Earlier, a report had said that the NC delegation and the Abdullahs held discussions over the upcoming local body polls and the current situation in the state. The delegation was led by Jammu’s provincial chief of the party Davinder Singh Rana, it said.

After the meeting, Rana told reporters that the detained leaders must be released first in order to allow any political process to begin. He said that the two leaders are “in high spirits”, but are “pained and anguished” over the developments in the state.

Meanwhile, it may be recalled that Farooq Khan, the adviser to the Jammu and Kashmir Governor, had last Thursday said that the detained political leaders will be released “one by one after analysis of every individual.”

(With inputs from agencies)