Leaders from the Peoples Democratic Party in Jammu deferred a meeting with detained party chief Mehbooba Mufti late on Sunday, hours after declaring that a delegation would meet her on Monday, PTI reported. This came on the day a National Conference delegation from Jammu met party chief Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah.

“PDP Jammu [has] decided to defer its scheduled visit of its leaders to meet party president Mehbooba Mufti tomorrow [Monday],” the party’s Spokesperson Firdous Tak tweeted. No reason was cited for the sudden change of the party’s plans. Tak had earlier announced that the delegation would be led by General Secretary Ved Mahajan.

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“No meeting between Miss Mufti and PDP Jammu leaders in Srinagar tomorrow as reported by media,” said a tweet from the account of Mehbooba Mufti, which is being handled by her daughter Iltija Mufti for now.

Mufti, the Abdullahs and other key Kashmiri politicians have been in detention since August 4, a day before the Indian government scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution, and bifurcated it into the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Earlier in the day, Tak had said the PDP had made the request to Governor Satya Pal Malik to allow the leaders from Jammu to meet Mufti. “We have been conveyed the permission has been granted,” he said. The politicians met twice in the day and then decided to approach Malik.

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An advisor to the governor had on Thursday said that the political leaders detained in Kashmir will be released in a phased manner. A day earlier, the state administration had ended the house arrest of all politicians in Jammu. The release came days after the state Election Commission announced elections to block development councils. The elections are due to take place on October 24, with the results to be announced on the same day.

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