Magsaysay awardee briefly put under house arrest for planning 'Stand For Kashmir' protest

Srinagar, Aug 12: Magsaysay Award winner Sandeep Pandey and his wife Arundhati Dhuru, an activist, were placed under house arrest in Lucknow for a few hours on Sunday over a planned demonstration to protest against the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 a week ago.

The two had organised an an event against the abolition of special status to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

The protest, called 'Stand for Kashmir', was to be held on Sunday evening at the Gandhi statue in Hazratganj, The Hindu reported.

However, Pandey said he was unaware he was under house arrest until 1.30 pm, when he tried to go out to buy bread, but was stopped. Pandey added that the police outside his house told him they were under orders not to let him and Arundhati Dhuru out till 4 pm.

Meanwhile, district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma denied Pandeys' claims of being put under an house arrest. Sharma said that the authorities only barred him from holding the protest at the Gandhi statue at Hazratganj, and that he was free to stage a protest at another venue, the Eco Garden.

On August 5, the BJP-led central government scrapped the special status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir through a presidential order and declared plans to bifurcate the state into two Union Territories. The bill cleared parliament and was signed by the President over the next few days.