Detained at home; "dictatorial" authority invoked in J&K: Farooq Abdullah

New Delhi, Aug 06: National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday said he has been put under house arrest, asserting that a "dictatorial" authority has been invoked and not a "democratic" one in Jammu and Kahmir.

In an emotional outburst, the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said he "broke the door" to come out and speak to the media.

Emphasising that the guarantee of the Article370 was in India''s Constitution, he said,"dictatorial authority has been invoked and not a democratic authority that we thought they will invoke. I don''t know how many have been arrested. Nobody is allowed to come in or go out, we are under house arrest," he said.

"As soon as the gate will open and our people will be out, we will fight, we will go to the court. We are not gun-runners, grenade-throwers, stone-throwers, we believe in peaceful resolutions. They want to murder us. My son (Omar Abdullah) is in jail," he added.

Union minister Amit Shah said in Lok Sabha today amid opposition demands clarified that Abdullah has neither been detained nor arrested.

Farooq Abdullah, the 81-year-old patriarch of the National Conference, has not been present in the house since Monday, when the government announced that the special status of the state has ended and that it would be bifurcated into two union territories.