Today’s India is different from what Kashmir acceded to: Mehbooba
Repressive measures by the authorities alienating people of Kashmir
Srinagar, Apr 17: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti Wednesday claimed the situation in Kashmir has worsened to an extent that the people have begun rethinking over the state’s accession to India.
“There is a law of jungle here. Yesterday an SDM and other staffers with him were beaten up by the Army. Prison inmates are beaten up, bodies (of militants killed) in encounters are mutilated and burnt by some chemical…,” the former chief minister claimed.
She was talking to reporters after a convention of her party workers at Khanabal in Anantnag district of the state.
“It does not seem we are with the India to which Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and Maharaja Hari Singh had acceded. That India was the country of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and everyone,” she said.
“Today, there is so much of oppression and atrocities committed that Kashmiris shiver and think which India did we accede to!” Mehbooba added.
She said that the repression of such a level is being unleashed upon people that Kashmir is fast turning into an “un-liveable place”.
Commenting over the highway ban and how it is affecting the patients suffering from terminal diseases, Mehbooba said that from undermining the human rights to causing heaviest hit on the Kashmir’s economy, the gag imposed highway clearly shows how Kashmiris are being hounded.
She also said that fruit-growers and dealers are suffering huge losses due to the ban on highway while as a death has also occurred due to such ban. “I don’t know what Government of India and Governor of Jammu and Kashmir want to do with Kashmir by issuing such orders,” he added.
About NC’s claims over safeguarding the special status of J&K, Mehbooba said, during her tenure, she took every step to safeguard the special status and also employed best lawyer to defend the case at Supreme Court (SC).
Cautioning that any attempt aimed at fiddling with the special status of Jammu and Kashmir with be sternly opposed by the people of the state, PDP president said that there are conspicuous conspiracies being hatched at different levels to change the Muslim-majority status of the state.
However, she said those who demand that Jammu and Kashmir’s special status should be scrapped must understand that that the relation between J&K and India is based on Article 370. “If this special status is scarped, it will nullify the legitimacy of accession of J&K with the Indian Union,” she reiterated.
The PDP president also asked the police to not take action against anyone involved in the pelting of stones at her motorcade in Khiram area of Anantnag district on Monday.
“Mehbooba Mufti asked police to release the youth, if anyone has been arrested in the case of stone-pelting on her motorcade in Khiram area the other day,” a PDP spokesman said.
On April 15, Mehbooba was returning after paying obeisance at a shrine in Khiram village when some people stoned the cavalcade which was on way to Bijbehara town.
A vehicle was damaged and a cop injured in the incident but government forces immediately cordoned off the area to provide a safe passage to the PDP president.
