BJPs Former ally Sajjad Lone not allowed to meet his wife and brother

The government did not allow Sajjad Gani Lone, chairman of the People's Conference detained in Jammu and Kashmir and former state social welfare minister, to meet his wife and brother. While he was allowed to meet his mother and sister.

It is being told that the Ministry of Home Affairs has reportedly denied Lone's request to his wife Asam Khan and brother Bilal Gani Lone. The concerned administration has expressed complete ignorance on the matter.

Since the passing of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill in Parliament, the administration has taken prominent leaders, separatists and prominent stone-pelters of Kashmir-centric political parties into preventive custody to maintain law and order in the Valley. These include both former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, besides former minister Sajjad Lone. Lone is kept in Santoor hotel. His sister Shabnam Lone and mother were allowed to meet him on Friday following a High Court directive.

Party spokesperson Adnan Ashraf Mir, who met the former separatist-turned-politician on August 6, two days after he was detained, said that several security personnel stood guard outside Mr. Lone’s room at the Centaur Hotel and that the only TV channel the People’s Conference leader had been given access to was Doordarshan News.

“When I met him at the hotel, he told me he was in shock and it was a dark day for the people of Kashmir and the rest of India. These were his only words,”