National Conference leader and former MLA Altaf Ahmad Wani was detained Thursday night for flying to Dubai from Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, PTI reported.
Unidentified officials said The Hindu that the Ministry of the Interior had included 38 politicians from Jammu and Kashmir on a “no-fly list”. This ban came into effect after the Center repealed Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 in August of last year. Wani was one of the politicians who were detained by the government.
Wani told the newspaper that he had to go to Dubai for his niece’s engagement. “They detained me at immigration for more than four hours and finally they told me that I could not travel outside the country,” he said.
The leader said he was asked to wait in a room. Immigration officials initially assured him that they had asked Srinagar for permission to let him fly. The Indian Express reported. “I think the permit did not arrive, the officials cited a technicality and said that I cannot fly out of the country,” the newspaper said. “Later, some J&K Police officers intervened and I was allowed to leave the airport.”
An unidentified Interior Ministry official said The Indian Express that Center was reviewing the blanket travel ban for Kashmiri politicians. “That [the ban] it had come as a result of Shah Faesal trying to fly to Turkey right after the August 5 decision, “the official said. Unfortunately, the order has not been reviewed by UT [union territory] administration since then. “
On August 14, 2019, Faesal was detained at the Delhi airport and sent back to Kashmir, where he was detained again in a makeshift detention center in a Srinagar hotel. Faesal was detained under the Public Security Act.
Almost all the political leaders of the Kashmir Valley, including former chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti, Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah, were arrested last year. Omar Abdullah was released seven months later, on March 24, when the Jammu and Kashmir administration revoked his arrest warrant under the Public Security Act. Farooq Abdullah was released on March 13. Mufti was released in October.
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