Mehbooba Mufti, Omar Abdullah Among Several J-K Politicians Arrested: Officials

The arrests come hours after the Centre announced the scrapping of Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and also proposed bifurcation of the state.

(File Photo by TAUSEEF MUSTAFA / AFP)

Jammu: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, who were under house arrest since Sunday night, have been arrested, officials said Monday. Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference leaders Sajjad Lone and Imran Ansari have also been arrested, they said. Some more arrests have been made, the officials said, without sharing details. The arrests come hours after the Centre announced the scrapping of Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and also proposed bifurcation of the state. The government on Monday revoked Article 370 to take away Jammu and Kashmir's special status, and proposed the bifurcation of the state into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, a bold and far-reaching decision that seeks to redraw the map and future of a region at the centre of a protracted militancy movement. Fulfilling an electoral promise of the BJP less than 90 days after the Modi 2.0 government took power, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced the decision in the Rajya Sabha, which approved both the resolution and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation bill. Both will now come up in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba articulated her apprehensions in a tweet. "GOIs intention is clear & sinister. They want to change demography of the only muslim majority state in India, disempower Muslims to the extent where they become second class citizens in their own state," she said.