"We have arrested him, and a committee will decide how long the arrest will be," said Muneer Khan, a top police official. Abdullah is the first pro-India politician who has been arrested under the Public Safety Act, under which rights activists say more than 20,000 Kashmiris have been detained in the last two decades. Amnesty International has called the PSA a "lawless law," and rights groups say India has used the law to stifle dissent and circumvent the criminal justice system, undermining accountability, transparency, and respect for human rights.
The PSA came into effect in 1978, under the government of Abdullah's father, who himself was a highly popular Kashmir leader. The law, in its early days, was supposedly meant to target timber smugglers in Kashmir. After rebellion started in the region in 1989, the law was used against rebels and anti-India protesters.
Abdullah's residence was declared a subsidiary jail and he was put under house arrest on Aug. 5 when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist-led government in New Delhi stripped occupied Jammu and Kashmir of semi-autonomy and statehood, creating two federal territories. Thousands of additional Indian troops were sent to the occupied Kashmir Valley, already one of the world's most militarized regions. Telephone communications, cellphone coverage, broadband internet and cable TV services were cut for the valley's 7 million people, although some communications have been gradually restored.
"If he (Abdullah) does not want to come out of his house, he cannot be brought out at gunpoint," Shah said, when other parliamentarians expressed concern over Abdullah's absence during the debate on Kashmir's status.