Swara Bhasker, Pooja Bedi hail Omar Abdullah's release; see posts

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah was released on Tuesday after nearly eight months detention. Bollywood actors Swara Bhasker and Pooja Bedi took to their Twitter handle to hail his release.

Omar Abdullah's 'childhood buddy' Pooja Bedi wrote, "And I'm SO HAPPY @OmarAbdullah Is finally released after 7 months of wrongful detention. Yippee yipee yipee!!!! I'm sure hes come out of it stronger. Our school motto was "never give in". He exemplifies it!!!" [sic]

Sitaram Yechury welcomes release of Omar Abdullah; calls for freeing Mufti, Faesal

Meanwhile, Swara too retweeted Omar's family picture and stressed that he was under house arrest for 232 days.

It's a very different world, first task to fight coronavirus: Omar Abdullah

Abdullah, sporting a long, unkempt grey beard, drove himself to his parents' home after walking out of the makeshift detention centre Hari Nivas, a state guesthouse. His mother Molly and sister Safia were with him. Abdullah said, "232 days after my detention today I finally left Hari Niwas. It's a very different world today to the one that existed on 5th August 2019."

It was his first tweet since August 5 last year, when he was detained following the government revoking Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 and bifurcating the state into two union territories.

Abdullah, who was released after the administration revoked the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) against him, also spoke to reporters, saying they were violating orders on social distancing by coming to meet him and this was a time to take precautions.

Omar Abdullah advocates social distancing on return, says taking on COVID-19 is primary

"During my period of detention, I thought a lot about what I would say the moment I come out what I would say about what happened on August 5 last year, what would I would say about Jammu and Kashmir as a state that was broken up into two union territories, what I would say about the change in the status of J-K, and about the hardships the people faced," Abdullah said outside his residence.

The education of children, the tourism industry, businesses and every other sector in the state had suffered, he said.

"But today, let's not be complacent towards the challenges being faced the world over. This is a fight between life and death. All of you have come here and it is definitely in violation of the government order.

"We should ensure social distancing and take adequate precautions. We should ensure that the coronavirus does not spread. I will talk about political developments and other aspects post August 5 but let us first fight this coronavirus," he said.

(With PTI inputs)