Farooq Abdullah supports Navlakha's detention, criticises Arundhati Roy

As he backed the Jammu and Kashmir government over preventing a rights activist from entering the Valley, Union minister Farooq Abdullah today sought to clarify that he doesn't interfere in the administrative matters of the state.

Defending the state government's decision to turn back Navlakha, who is known to have separatist views on Jammu and Kashmir, he said: "It is all right. For safety of Kashmir, we will do anything. It should be done. We want tourism, we do not want tragedies."

Gautam Navlakha, a frequent traveller to the valley for the last two decades, has written extensively about alleged human rights violations in the state and is consulting editor of a leading magazine. He was detained at Srinagar airport yesterday under section 144 CrPC.

Asked if Arundhati Roy will be allowed to visit the valley, Abdullah evaded a direct reply saying, "I do not know what she is coming here for. I have nothing to do with her or with her book."

"What are they coming for? What does that writer want - to burn Kashmir? Let them burn some other place in India. Kashmir is not for burning," Abdullah, Union minister for renewable energy, told reporters in Pahalgam, 100km from Srinagar.

Seeking to distance himself from the administrative matters of the state, he said, "I will not advise my son (Omar Abdullah). He is chief minister...he decides his things."