Sara Abdullah Pilot slams Modi govt for using wrong social media posts for Omar Abdullah’s detention

Sara Abdullah Pilot, sister of Omar Abdullah, slammed the Modi government over Omar Abdullah’s detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA) on the basis of social media posts from the account which were not posted by him or were non-existent.

The URLs of posts given by the Modi-led government as the sole basis for his detention either don’t exist or were not posted by Abdullah. Sara Abdullah said that his detention is “legally unsustainable and utterly unconstitutional”, reported The Wire.

The “offending” posts mentioned by the government were not made from Abdullah’s verified Facebook account. Some URL links given were broken and “it is found that the said URL is non-existent and that no page is hosted on the said URLs”.

Srinagar district magistrate (DM) Shahid Iqbal Chaudhary told the apex court that Abdullah was, and continues to be, detained in conformity with the mandatory provisions of the PSA as the administration had proof to show Abdullah’s “activities” which were “calculated to disturb public peace and tranquillity”.

Abdullah’s verified Facebook account is still active through which he urged people to stay calm and maintain peace.

The affidavit submitted by Sara Abdullah Pilot reads, “on scrutiny of the verified Facebook account of the detenue, the deponent was shocked to discover that the said social media posts…that have been purportedly attributed to the detenue and have been maliciously used against him were not even made by the detenue through his verified Facebook account”.

She has also launched a sharp attack on the administration’s statement of Jammu and Kashmir’s public order made in the context of geographical proximity to the “Islamic Republic of Pakistan”, and questioned why the geographical proximity was not applied also on the states like Gujarat, Punjab and Rajasthan.

The Wire quoted Sara Abdullah as saying, “Abdullah can oppose the Centre’s decision on Article 370 as this falls squarely within the realm of freedom of speech and expression guaranteed to every citizen of this country and the said right assumes greater significance when the right pertains to a person who, being a former Chief Minister and former Leader of Opposition (State Assembly) is expected, by the rigours of the Constitution itself, to question and assail any decision of the dispensation in power.”