Kashmiri leader Shah Faesal, a former IAS officer, was stopped from flying out of the country at Delhi airport and packed off to Srinagar where he has been placed under preventive detention, a friend and a government official confirmed.

The friend told The Hindu that when Mr. Faesal reached the immigration desk around 1.30 am on Wednesday, he was told that he had a look out notice against him. “The authorities had his photograph and the notice, on the basis of which he was stopped from boarding a flight to Istanbul. He was on the way to Harvard Kennedy school in the U.S. to complete his course,” said the friend.

According to the friend, Mr. Faesal spoke to his wife around 4.30 am and told her that had been questioned by the authorities at the airport regarding an interview he gave to the BBC on Tuesday.

Mr. Faesal, a topper of the 2009 UPSC civil services exams, had told the channel, “It’s my generation which has now got the taste of betrayal” when asked about the annulment of Article 370 in the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

A senior government official said that Mr. Faesal was flown to Srinagar where he has been held under “preventive detention”. The official clarified that he was not arrested under the Public Safety Act. The friend said that he was kept at Centaur Hotel in Srinagar. “His wife has also gone to Srinagar now,” the friend said.

Mr. Faesal, president of the J&K Peoples Movement, last spoke to his wife around 4.30 am from the Delhi airport. He was in Delhi for the past two days.

Delhi airport’s DCP Sanjay Bhatia said, “We do not have any information on his arrest.”