Farooq denies RAW ex-chief’s claim he supported Article 370 abrogation | India News

SRINAGAR: National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah rejected Wednesday former RAW chief AS Dulat’s claim that he privately supported the abrogation of Article 370, calling the assertion “misleading and inaccurate”.
“His book has so many mistakes that I cannot describe them,” Abdullah advised reporters. “He calls me a friend, but a friend cannot write such things.” He known as the suggestion illogical, saying he and different politicians have been detained the night time Article 370 was revoked on August 5, 2019. “We were in jail. That very night, we were charged under Public Safety Act,” he mentioned.
Dulat’s claim seems in his forthcoming e book “The Chief Minister and The Spy”, which has triggered a political storm in J&Okay. The former intelligence officer, who has written about his lengthy friendship with Abdullah in earlier work, alleged that the NC chief supported the constitutional transfer in non-public, contradicting his get together’s public place.
NC has demanded the restoration of Article 370 and was the primary to file a petition within the Supreme Court difficult its abrogation. Dulat’s revelation has positioned the get together on the defensive.
Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Lone backed Dulat’s account, citing the previous spymaster’s shut ties with Abdullah. “He is virtually his alter ego,” Lone mentioned. “I personally am not surprised. The August 2019 meeting of CM sahib and Farooq sahib with the PM was never a mystery for me.”
Farooq Abdullah, his son CM Omar Abdullah, and NC MP Hasnain Masoodi had met PM Narendra Modi in New Delhi days earlier than the abrogation.
PDP politicians additionally weighed in. Iltija Mufti mentioned the e book confirmed long-held suspicions. “Dulat sahib, an ardent Abdullah supporter, has shared how Farooq sahib agreed with Delhi’s illegal move of abrogating Article 370,” she mentioned. “There were doubts about what transpired between the Abdullahs and the PM days before J&K’s special status was revoked.”
PDP’s Waheed Parra accused NC of political complicity. “While PDP faced the brunt of the state’s crackdown — with over 40 politicians jailed, dissent crushed, and journalists targeted — NC remained untouched,” he mentioned. “There was no strong statement, no mass mobilisation. What followed instead was electoral opportunism.”
NC spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq dismissed Dulat’s claim as a fabrication. “He writes many baseless things to make his book popular,” he mentioned. “This is imagination, not fact.”
Abdullah’s daughter Safia additionally rejected Dulat’s assertions. “I have never trusted Dulat. He was always a spy whose loyalty was only to himself,” she mentioned. “He never cared who he threw under the bus with his books.”
Dulat has earlier defended Abdullah in his books “Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years” and “A Life in the Shadows”, the place he criticised Delhi for sidelining the veteran Kashmiri politician.