PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday questioned her detention over security reasons, saying that BJP ministers are allowed to campaign freely for District Development Council (DDC) elections.
The former J&K chief minister said that she has illegally been detained three times in less than a fortnight
“Illegally detained today for the third time in less than a fortnight. Too much democracy indeed. If my movements are curbed due to ‘security concerns’, then why are BJP ministers allowed to campaign freely in Kashmir while I’ve been asked to wait until culmination of DDC elections?,” she tweeted, while posting a letter from Director SSG mentioning that the former CM can’t go to Budgam due to security reasons and her programme may be deferred till the culmination of DDC polls.
On Tuesday, she had alleged that she had been detained at her house ahead of her visit to Budgam district. She had even posted a video on her Twitter handle, claiming that she had been detained by the police. “Illegal detention has become GOIs favourite go to method for muzzling any form of opposition. I’ve been detained once again because I wanted to visit Budgam where hundreds of families were evicted from their homes,” she tweeted.
According to PDP leaders, Mufti was scheduled to visit a village in Budgam where families have been served eviction notices by the forest department. Earlier, she had also visited Pahalgam and met Gujjar families who were asked to vacate forest land.
This is not the first time that the PDP president has been restricted to her house since her release after 14 months. Earlier, police didn’t allow her to travel to Pulwama to meet the family of PDP youth president Waheed Parra a day after his arrest by NIA in New Delhi. At the time, the police had cited security reasons. However, she visited Pulwama later and met the family members of Parra at Naira village.