The former chief minister said the BJP withdrew support to her government only after realising that we would not follow the dotted line and dictation from New Delhi.
Team Clarion
SRINAGAR — The state administration should provide an account of the hundreds of innocent Kashmiris arrested daily in Jammu and Kashmir in flagrant violation of the established norms and procedures, former chief minister and chief of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Mehbooba Mufti, has said.
Addressing a party workers’ convention at Manzgam in the south Kashmir district of Kulgam on Sunday, the PDP chief said the repressive measures adopted by various government agencies in the valley had rendered the life, property, and privacy of the people insecure.
“There is disappointment, people are being arrested arbitrarily. Recently elderly wife of Sarjan Barkati was arrested in a terror funding case. There is no evidence, no hearing and people are just arrested and sent to jail. So, people are under coercion, fear,” Mehbooba said in Kulgam.
She said that countless Kashmiri people are being arrested by agencies like NIA, CBI, SIA, and SIU. But, hardly any information was being shared about their fate,” Mehbooba was quoted by media reports as saying.
“Please tell us are they alive or dead, where are they lodged? Which court has remanded them to custody?” she asked the lieutenant governor in a direct question.
She quoted a distinguished Kashmiri leader as saying that despite so many arrests there hardly has been any conviction from the court. “They all had been picked up on trumped-up charges.”
This should lead the administration to review its policies, she added.
Mehbooba continued that she or her party never sought power but the vision offered by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is to bring the state out of its misery and ensure a life of peace and dignity for its people.
She said more important than power is the moral strength and political will to speak up for people and their rights. “I did not compromise on that even while heading the government with BJP,” she said.
Mehbooba said the BJP withdrew support to her government only after realising that we would not follow the dotted line and dictation from New Delhi.
Urging Kashmiris to lend their voice for the restoration of their rights, Mehbooba said she’s not on a campaign for votes. “Positions don’t matter to me but what matters is to speak up for our agenda and our people. I’ll never compromise on that, come what may”, she was quoted as saying.
