Srinagar, November 27
Kashmir is an “open-air prison” where no one has the right to express their opinion, PDP Chairman Mehbooba Mufti said on Friday after authorities barred him from holding a press conference at his residence here, where he claimed he was under house arrest.
The former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir said she was not allowed to visit the Pulwama residence of party leader Waheed Parra, who was arrested by the NIA earlier this week, after which she announced that she would meet journalists at his residence. at 3 pm on Friday.
However, around the time announced by the PDP chief, a group of police officers detained journalists about 100 meters from their ‘Fairview’ residence in the Gupkar area of the city saying the press conference was not allowed “according to superior orders “.
I have been illegally detained once more. For two days, the administrator of J&K has refused to allow me to visit @parawahidPulwama’s family. BJP ministers and their puppets can move to every corner of Kashmir, but security is an issue only in my case. pic.twitter.com/U5KlWzW3FQ
– Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) November 27, 2020
“The press has been prohibited from entering my residence in Srinagar. This despite the fact that there are no written orders to explain my arbitrary detention. Kashmir is an open-air prison where no one has the right to express their opinion, ”Mufti said on Twitter.
Although the police, through his unverified Twitter account, said that Mufti was not under house arrest and was only asked to postpone his visit to Pulwama for security reasons, the daughter of the PDP leader, Iltija, posted a video in which he said that he was not allowed to leave the premises by the police officers present there.
Parking a truck in front of our doors is now standard operating procedure for this manager. They recently did the same to my father to make him stop praying. Personal freedom is treated as a favor by the government, to give and withdraw at will, without interference from the judiciary. https://t.co/yUjDhhZb9p
– Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) November 27, 2020
She asked through the iron gate of her residence the reasons why she and her mother were detained, and a police officer posted outside said “please go to the other door. SP saab and the magistrate are there.”
The former CM had requested permission to visit Parra’s residence on Friday to meet with the family of the party’s youth leader. She had said that Parra was arrested on “unfounded charges.”
“I have been illegally detained once again. For two days, the administrator of J&K has refused to allow me to visit @parawahid’s family in Pulwama. BJP ministers and their puppets can move to every corner of Kashmir, but security is just an issue in my case, “Mufti said in a previous tweet.
He said his daughter had also been placed under house arrest.
“His cruelty knows no bounds. Waheed was arrested on unfounded charges and I am not even allowed to comfort his family. Even my daughter Iltija has been placed under house arrest because she also wanted to visit Waheed’s family,” said the head of the PDP on Twitter. .
In a communication posted by Mufti on his official Twitter account, the Additional Director General of Police and the Director of the Special Security Group (SSG), SD Singh, requested the rescheduling of the proposed visit of the former Chief Minister to the village of Naira at the request of the Pulwama District Police. .
The Pulwama Police requested that their program be rescheduled, citing that neither a tampering check nor adequate sanitation of the route had been carried out, as all the workforce was assigned to other operational tasks related to the elections.
“The leader of the PDP, Ms. Mehbooba Mufti, is not under house arrest. He was asked to postpone his visit to Pulwama simply for security reasons, ”the Kashmir area police said on Twitter.
In reaction to the alleged detention, the vice president of the National Conference (NC), Omar Abdullah, said that personal freedom was being treated as a favor by the government that grants and withdraws it at will, while the judiciary does not interfere .
“Parking a truck in front of our doors is now standard operating procedure for this administrator. Recently, they did the same with my father to prevent him from praying. The government treats personal freedom as a favor, giving and withdrawing at will, without interference from the judiciary, “Abdullah wrote on Twitter.
On October 30, her father and North Carolina President Farooq Abdullah were unable to leave their residence to offer prayers at the Hazratbal shrine on the occasion of Eid-Milad-un-Nabi.
The former Chief Minister accused the administration of using “fear and intimidation” to “quell” any form of opposition a day before the start of the District Development Council (DDC) elections.
“We are one day away from the DDC vote and it is clear that the administrator here is using fear and intimidation together to dampen any form of opposition,” he said on Twitter.
Jammu and Kashmir is set for the inaugural District Development Council (DDC) elections and by-elections for the panchayat and urban local bodies, scheduled to be held in eight phases starting on November 28.
Parra was arrested by the NIA on Wednesday for allegedly seeking help from the terrorist group Hizbul Mujahideen to seek its support in the 2019 parliamentary elections in which Mehbooba was the PPD candidate. PTI
