Kashmir: Modi administration challenged in court over ‘draconian’ colonial-era laws used to detain politicians for more than six months

Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, both former chief ministers and mainstream politicians, have been under house arrest since 5 August

Mehbooba Mufti is being detained under the Public Safety Act (Adam Withnall/The Independent)

The detention of mainstream political party leaders in India-administered Kashmir is to be challenged in the Supreme Court, amid a growing cross-party backlash.

The house arrests of former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti were extended last week for up to two years without charge under the controversial colonial-era Public Safety Act (PSA).

The pair, who represent Kashmir’s two largest regional parties, have been in detention since 5 August last year, when Narendra Modi’s government announced the decision to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomy and statehood.

Mr Abdullah’s sister, Sara Abdullah Pilot, filed a habeas corpus petition at the Supreme Court on Monday, demanding his physical presence at the court in Delhi and an end to his detention. Judges have agreed to hear the matter.

Ms Abdullah Pilot said that a dossier of allegations against her brother, filed by the Jammu and Kashmir authorities to support his extended detention on Thursday, contained “patently false and ridiculous material”.

The dossier accuses Mr Abdullah of “enjoying the support of gullible masses” and harbouring “radical thoughts”, and claims this is evidenced by his ability to “garner votes even during the peak of militancy and poll boycotts”.

Essentially, Ms Abdullah Pilot said, her brother is being accused of “becoming a popular figure” and “convincing people to participate in elections in huge numbers and exercise their democratic right to vote, despite threats from militants”.

Separately, the sister of Ms Mufti – who is running her Twitter profile while she remains cut off from internet access – hit out at the Modi administration’s use of the “draconian” PSA and released portions of the dossier of claims against the People’s Democratic Party leader.

The dossier recommends Ms Mufti’s continued house arrest on the basis that she is guilty of “stoking gullible masses” and “demoralising security forces” with her public statements.

Then-Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah addresses a press conference in Srinagar (AP)

To support this claim, it cites tweets and other public comments by Ms Mufti which are, in essence, seemingly no more than reasonable criticisms of government policy. They include criticism of the authorities for requiring Kashmiris “to seek permission to use roads that rightly belong to them”, and questioning the necessity for a specific law banning triple talaq divorce among Muslims.

Born in the UK to an English mother, both Mr Abdullah’s father and grandfather were chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir. He held that position himself from 2009 to 2014, and served as India’s foreign minister in 2001-2.

Ms Mufti, 60, was the last chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state when, in 2016, the coalition government with the BJP broke down. She is the daughter of the two-time chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

Both the political parties of Ms Mufti and Mr Abdullah, 49, advocate for a solution where India maintains its sovereignty over Kashmir. They have nonetheless maintained critical opposition to increasingly authoritarian measures from Delhi, and want to see free and fair elections in the region.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Independent in her home in Kashmir early last year, Ms Mufti said she would one day like to see the formation of a semi-united Kashmir with its own assembly and free trade area, but where India and Pakistan keep ultimate control over their portions of the state for matters of defence and foreign affairs. Already an unlikely prospect at the time, Mr Modi’s move to downgrade Jammu and Kashmir into a union territory makes ever more distant any kind of amicable solution like this.

The author and journalist Swati Chaturvedi said that “the charges against Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti are farcical and do huge damage to India’s democracy”.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, national secretary of the main national opposition Congress party, wrote on Twitter: “Since when has being a ‘Daddy’s girl’ and encouraging people to vote become a crime against the nation? I would be proud to be both!

“It’s pretty clear that the government has no basis for charging [Mr Abdullah] and [Ms Mufti] with PSA. They must be freed.”

Imran Nabi Dar, a spokesperson for Mr Abdullah’s party National Conference, called the PSA charges against him “perplexing and shocking”. He told the Hindustan Times: “It is shocking what they are saying and ironic as well that he has been charged for asking people to come out to vote.”