More Salah-ud-Dins will be born if PDP splits: Mehbooba

Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti on Friday warned Delhi that more Salah-ud-Dins (Hizb-ul-Mujahideen chief) and Yasin Maliks (JKLF chief) would be born if it tries to “break” her Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“If Delhi tries to break PDP then the outcome will be dangerous,” she told reporters on the occasion of Martyr's Day function at Martyr's graveyard in old city here.

Referring to the 1987 Assembly elections when large-scale rigging created unrest in the Valley and the subsequent outbreak of militancy, Mehbooba warned that if Delhi dismisses the voting rights of people like 1987 and creates divisions then Salah-ud-Dins and Yasin Maliks would be born again.

Soon after the PDP-BJP coalition ended on June 19, Mehbooba warned the BJP that any attempt to engineer defections in her party “would erode the trust of the Kashmiris in Indian democracy.”

Reacting to Mehbooba's latest statement, her predecessor and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah took a dig at the PDP saying no one will ‘mourn its demise.’

“Let me put this out here for all to remember NOT ONE NEW MILITANT WILL BE CREATED WITH THE BREAK UP OF THE PDP. People will not mourn the demise of a party created in Delhi only to divide the votes of Kashmiris (sic),” he tweeted.

Blaming that the militancy was reborn during PDP’s more than three-year tenure, Omar said, “She (Mehbooba) must really be desperate if she is threatening the Centre with renewed militancy if PDP breaks up. She seems to have forgotten that militancy in Kashmir has already been reborn under her most able administration.”

Ever since the BJP pulled out of the alliance with the PDP last month, speculations are rife that the saffron party is trying to break the PDP to form a new government in the state. At least six PDP legislators have rebelled against Mehbooba in recent days alleging her of “nepotism” and called for an end to “family rule” in the state.