Srinagar/March,10 National Conference Vice President and former Chief Minster Omar Abdullah turned 50 in jail. Oar’s birthday comes a day after top eight opposition parties including the three parties headed by former Prime Minister, H D Deve Gowda, Mamata Benerjee and Sharad Pawar strongly sought the release of Jammu and Kashmir’s three former Chief Ministers including Omar Abdullah. Born on March 10, 1970, in Rochford, Essex, United Kingdom, Omar is the scion of Kashmiri’s most influential and oldest political family. Omar studied at the Burn Hall School, Srinagar and then at Lawrence School, Sonawar. He is an alumnus of Sydenham College, Mumbai (where he did his Hotel management degree). After that, he joined the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, for MBA, although he did not complete it.
Omar joined politics in 1998, as a Lok Sabha member, a feat he repeated in subsequent three elections. He served as a Union minister of state for external affairs in NDA government from July 23, 2001, to December 23, 2002. Omar took on the mantle of National Conference from his father Dr Farooq Abdullah, on June 23, 2002, and resigned from NDA government in October 2002 to concentrate on party work. After taking the reins of his party, Omar lost his own seat of Ganderbal in 2002, the otherwise bastion of National Conference. He was re-elected as NC president in 2006. Omar later contested again for Ganderbal in 2008. This time he emerged as a winning candidate. His party as well emerged to have a political mandate and along with congress, formed a coalition government. Later, he moved to Beerwah, a constituency that he won in 2014. Omar’s mother and sister have access to him in jail, twice a week. After almost 68 days, his sons came and met him in October. Then, he was under arrest under section 107 of RPC. After he completed six months, he was formally detained under the Public Safety Act.
