Emotions ran high on Friday as the imprisoned Omar Abdullah, former chief minister, met his two sons for the first time since being jailed on August 5.

Family sources said Zahir, 20, and Zamir, 22, met their father around noon at Hari Niwas, the state guesthouse that the government has designated as a sub-jail.

“They had applied for permission to meet their father. For around two hours, they remained with Omar sahib,” a relative said.

A CRPF officer said the boys looked excited. Zahir and Zamir live with Omar’s estranged wife Payal in Delhi. It’s not clear when Omar had last met his sons. Omar’s relations with Payal got strained several years ago and a divorce plea is pending in a court.

Officials said Omar’s sons arrived from Delhi early in the morning and rushed straight to their father’s detention centre.

“A security vehicle was sent to the airport to receive them,” an official said.

The CRPF officer said that Omar’s sons did not visit their grandfather Farooq Abdullah’s Gupkar Road home, which is only a few hundred metres from Hari Niwas.

No visitors were allowed to meet Omar for a long time after his detention. In the past few weeks, though, several politicians and close relatives, including Farooq’s eldest daughter Safiya, have met him.

Omar’s British mother, Moily Abdullah, who lives in London, had arrived last month to meet her son and husband. She has since then been living here with Farooq, who was put under informal house arrest on August 5 and later booked under the Public Safety Act, with his home designated a sub-jail.

Omar was caught on camera last week, clicking selfies with a few politicians who had come to visit him.

He has grown a beard in jail, which makes him look older.

Sources said he has been reading, working out and watching movies.