Centre turning Jammu and Kashmir into Afghanistan: Mehbooba on govt's anti-encroachment drive

PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti on Monday accused the Narendra Modi government of “turning Jammu and Kashmir into Afghanistan” by demolishing the homes of poor and under-privileged through an anti-encroachment drive.

Alleging that the BJP is using its “brute majority to weaponize everything and bulldoze the Constitution”, she asked the country’s Opposition leaders “not to be mute spectators” to the plight of people, who are now being subjected to “atrocities by the BJP”.

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She said it seemed that the Modi government has learnt from the Israeli government and is doing what it does to Palestinian people.

“Palestine is still better. They are making Kashmir into Afghanistan. At least people talk. Kashmir is becoming worse than Afghanistan the way bulldozers are being used to demolish homes of people. What is the purpose of demolishing houses of people,” Mehbooba told a press conference here.

She claimed that the government is even treating centuries-old Shankaracharya Temple and cantonment built by the erstwhile Maharaja as structures made on encroached land.

Asked about the government's claim that normalcy has returned to the Kashmir valley citing several indicators, including those of tourists, she shot back, tourists go to Palestine also. “Do you think there are no tourists in Palestine? BJP is behaving like the East India Company in Kashmir and elsewhere in the country,” she said.

Emphasising that the voice of anyone speaking about the Constitution is being crushed, she said, “was removal of Article 370 in accordance with the Constitutional provisions?”