Dr. Farooq Abdullah (Hindi: फारूख अब्दुल्ला, Urdu: فاروق عبدالله), born 21 October 1936 in Soura, Jammu & Kashmir, India, is the son of Sheikh Abdullah, is a doctor of medicine and has served as chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir on several occasions since 1982.
His political career has been marked with controversy. Publicly, Farooq Abdullah has advocated autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir within the constitution of India and he has advocated the formalisation of the Line of Control (LoC) as the international border. However, he has been known to contradict himself, delivering differing statements in Kashmir and Delhi. While he lived in London, he was an active member of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front which demands complete independence for entire Jammu and Kashmir. This may well have been a ploy to win popular vote or to put pressure on the Indian government to give further concessions to his father in Kashmir. In terms of his ideological leanings, Farooq Abdullah is a self-proclaimed secularist with his son and daughters married to non-Muslims.
Abdullah was a novice in the political arena of Jammu and Kashmir when he was appointed president of National Conference in Srinagar on August 21, 1981. His prime qualification was that he was the son and heir of the nationalist Kashmiri leader Sheikh Abdullah. In 1984, Abdullah government was dismissed and replaced with a pro-Congress government under GM Shah. He was dismissed after his supporters danced naked in front of Indira Gandhi to humiliate her during an election rally. Controversially, he forged an intricate alliance with the Congress and returned as interim chief minister in 1987. He returned to power as Chief Minister that year following elections that were mired by allegations of electoral fraud.
As Chief Minister, he created the infamous task force of the Jammu and Kashmir policeforce, which functioned as his private militia, committed gross human rights violations and is held responsible by human rights groups for thousands of extra judicial killings. He is also alleged to have patronized known terrorists, including Papa Kishtawari, Nab Azad and Kuka Parray, and allegedly used them to terrorize his political opponents and force people to attend his public meetings. In his first tenure as Chief Minister he was accused of setting up training camps for sikh terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir and using them to meet his achieve his political goals in the region and create problems for the ruling Indian National Congress party in Punjab state.
He is married to Molly, a nurse of British origin. She is estranged from him and lives in England, reportedly suffering from poor health.
He has suffered politically due the Kashmir sex scandal, which involved politicians, businessmen, top civil and police officers who are known to be very close to him. The scandal involved the alleged exploitation of underage girls from poor backgrounds.
He still remains active and popular in politics after handing over the reins of his party to his son and has stated on a number of occasions that his ultimate goal is to be the president of India.
Abdullah's second term as Chief Minister was during 1986-90 and third term was during 1996-2002.
