Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah has reportedly been placed under house arrest amid rising tensions in the disputed region. The minister wrote about the arrest on his Twitter page.
I believe I’m being placed under house arrest from midnight tonight & the process has already started for other mainstream leaders. No way of knowing if this is true but if it is then I’ll see all of you on the other side of whatever is in store. Allah save us 🙏🏼
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) August 4, 2019
NDTV reported that former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti, who served at the post from 4 April 2016 to 19 June 2018 and Indian Kashmiri politician Sajjad Lone, have also been placed under house arrest.
Earlier, India sent paramilitary forces to the region, putting the military on high alert after army sources informed of possible terrorist attacks in the Kashmir region.
Prior to this, Pakistan accused India of using cluster bombs to kill civilians along the Line of Control (LOC). According to Islamabad, at least two civilians were killed and 11 more seriously injured in the attack. The accusations were voiced a day after New Delhi announced a decision to significantly boost its forces in the region of Jammu and Kashmir by sending 28,000 troops from the country's Central Armed Police Force, in addition to 10,000 Indian soldiers already deployed there last week.
Relations between India and Pakistan have traditionally been tense over competing claims to parts of the Kashmir region since the countries gained independence from the British Empire in 1947.
The strife escalated after a deadly attack in Kashmir on 14 February, when a suicide bomber from the Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed attacked an Indian security convoy, killing over 40 personnel. The Indian Air Force retaliated by an airstrike against what it claimed to be a camp belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed in the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir.
