Former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and other political leaders of Jammu and Kashmir were placed under house arrest on Saturday to mark the fourth anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370. Mufti’s Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party sought permission to hold the seminar, but the administration refused permission.
Tweeted Mehbooba Mufti “Today, I have been put under house arrest together with other senior PDP leaders. This comes after a midnight crackdown where many men from my party are being illegally detained at police stations. GOI’s false claims of normality towards SC reveal their paranoia driven actions”.
She added “On the one hand, giant hoardings have been put up in Srinagar calling on Kashmiris to ‘celebrate’ the illegal abrogation of Article 370. While brute force is being used to stifle the genuine sentiment of the people. I hope the Hon’ble SC will take cognizance of this development by the time Article 370 comes up for hearing”.
PDP denied permission to hold the event
The PDP said the Srinagar administration denied the party permission to hold an event to mark the fourth anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370.
On 5 August 2019, the Center abrogated Article 370, which had given special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and bifurcated it into the union territories of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
On Friday, Mufti claimed that her party leaders were detained ahead of the fourth anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370.
“Why is @JmuKmrPolice detaining a PDP leader on the eve of August 5? Arif Laigroo was captured by the police in this video,” Mehbooba tweeted as she posted a video purportedly showing the PDP leader being taken away by the police. vehicle.
For this event, the PDP has sought permission to hold a seminar or discussion with the general public on Saturday on the repeal of Articles 370 and 35A.
The PDP had earlier said it had invited like-minded parties from Kashmir for a program to be held at the Sher-e-Kashmir Park near the PDP headquarters here.
“Our representative was informed on August 4, 2023 at around 5:00 pm that the requested permit was denied without reason,” the PDP spokesperson said.
He said while the PDP was denied permission, the BJP’s request to hold an event at Jawahar Nagar Park and later a rally from Nehru Park to SKICC to “celebrate” the repeal of the two articles was allowed.
“The administration’s duplicitous and dubious approach is strongly condemned by us and this reiterates our stand that the administration and the country are not governed by rules or the constitution but by the political agenda set by the BJP,” the spokesperson said.
Taking to Twitter, Mehbooba also alleged that the BJP government has given a go-ahead to perform a ‘tamasha’ to celebrate the ‘illegal’ abrogation of Article 370 and all this is being done to ‘deceive’ public opinion in the country.
“It just continues to expose the facade of normalcy – a false narrative to justify their illegal actions,” she said.
