‘Wrong to arrest Kashmiri leaders,’ says Capt Amarinder Singh

He also expressed surprise at the Akali Dal’s decision to welcome the development, saying they had done a somersault as the move was against the federal structure, which incidentally was the essence of the Akali’s Anandpur Sahib resolution.

Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday protested the arrest of Kashmiri political leaders "at the behest of a political party which had vehemently opposed the arrest of opposition leaders during the Emergency".

Capt Amarinder Singh said the act smacked of double standards on the part of the BJP-led government at the Centre. (HT PHOTO.)

Terming the arrest of Kashmiri leaders as totally wrong, Amarinder said the act smacked of double standards on the part of the BJP-led government at the Centre. In an informal chat with mediapersons outside the assembly, the CM ruled out any impact of the revocation of Article 370 on either the Kartarpur Corridor or terrorism in Kashmir. "How can it be linked with terrorism,” he said when asked to comment on BJP’s claim that the move would end terror in the valley.

Though the validity of Article 370 could be debated, the process adopted by the central government to abrogate it was unconstitutional, the CM said, reiterating that no norms were followed in the matter. "By failing to evolve a consensus before taking such an important decision, the BJP-led government had weakened the federal structure and it is a systemic attempt by the Centre to weaken the states," he said.