“Troubled” to see Omar Abdullah’s picture, says Stalin

DMK President M K Stalin on Monday said he was deeply troubled to see a photograph of National Conference leader Omar Abdullah in which he sports an overgrown beard and demanded the Centre immediately release all leaders in detention in Jammu and Kashmir.

The top Dravidian party leader took to Twitter to demand his release and said "Deeply troubled to see this picture of @OmarAbdullah" and tagged three images of the Kashmiri leader.

While the first showed Omar Abdullah clean shaven, the next featured him with a medium beard and in the final one an overgrown beard was striking.

"Equally concerned about Farooq Abdullah, @MehboobaMufti & other Kashmiri leaders who are incarcerated without trial or due process. Union Govt must immediately release all political prisoners and restore normalcy in Valley," he said.

The DMK has all along been demanding the release of all leaders in detention in Kashmir following the scrapping of Article 370.

A photograph of Omar Abdullah surfaced on Twitter on January 25 in which he seemed almost unrecognisable sporting a salt and pepper beard, triggering reactions of awe and anger from netizens, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Omar is among the three former chief ministers of the erstwhile state who continue to be in custody since August 5 when the Centre abrogated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and divided it in two Union Territories.

This is first picture of 49-year old Omar to have appeared in public domain after five months in detention. It showed him smiling in a snow covered jacket and sporting an unkempt greyish beard.