Farooq Abdullah to attend Parliament for first time since Article 370 abrogation

Abdullah's presence is bound to draw attention to the allegations that some leaders in J&K were placed under detention illegally

National Conference President and former Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) chief minister Farooq Abdullah will attend the Monsoon Session of Parliament for the first time since the abrogation of Article 370 in August last year when local leaders, including Abdullah and son Omar, were placed under detention.

Confirming he will be attending the Monsoon Session of Parliament, Abdullah told the newspaper:  "Yes, I am going to attend Parliament. Though they have kept no provisions to ask questions, I will raise our issues there."

According to the report, Abdullah's presence is bound to draw attention to the allegations that some leaders in J&K were placed under detention illegally, and could also spark a debate around People's Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti's continued detention.

Earlier last year, during the debate on the revocation of special status for J&K, some Opposition leaders had demanded that Abdullah be allowed to attend Parliament. This had come after Union Home Minister Amit Shah had claimed that Abdullah had not been placed under house arrest and that he was free to move.

On his part, Abdullah had claimed that he had to break the door of his house to come out of detention. Both Abdullah and Omar were released on March 13 and March 24, respectively. While most of the other mainstream political leaders have been released, Mufti's continues to be under detention.

The Monsoon Session of Parliament will begin from September 14 with extraordinary measures being put in place to check the spread of COVID-19, due to which proceedings had to be cut short in March.