IAS officer-turned-politician Shah Faesal detained at Delhi airport before leaving India, put under house arrest in Srinagar

Former IAS officer Shah Faesal has been critical of BJP-led NDA government’s move to abrogate Article 370 and bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir.

Civil servant-turned-politician Shah Faesal was on Wednesday detained by the police in the national capital just before he was set to fly abroad. Sources told Zee News that after the detention, the former IAS officer, who had first grabbed headlines by topping the UPSC examination, was sent to Jammu and Kashmir. According to the sources, Faesal has been kept under house arrest in Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir.

The former IAS officer has been critical of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA government’s move to abrogate Article 370 and bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories. Taking to Twitter, Faesal had said that there were two choice before the Kashmiris – to be a stooge or to be a separatist.

“Kashmir will need a long, sustained, non-violent political mass movement for restoration of the political rights. Abolition of Article 370 has finished the mainstream. Constitutionalists are gone. So you can either be a stooge or a separatist now. No shades of grey,” his tweet read.

Faesal had also declared that he would not celebrate Eid-Al-Adha. He had tweeted that there would be no Eid celebration “till the last bit of insult is avenged and undone”.

He said, “There is no Eid. Kashmiris across the world are mourning the illegal annexation of their land. There shall be no Eid till everything that has been stolen and snatched since 1947 is returned back. No Eid till the last bit of insult is avenged and undone.”

Shah Faesal had in March 2019 launched his own political party – J&K People’s Movement.

According to reports, several political leaders in Jammu and Kashmir, including former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, have been put under house arrest. Many separatist leaders have been put under house arrest.

There is an unprecedented security cover across Jammu and Kashmir to avoid any untoward incident in the wake of abrogation of Article 370, which granted special status to the region. On the occasion of Eid-al-Adha on Monday, the restrictions were eased to let people celebrate the festival.