Mehbooba Mufti under house arrest; not allowed to visit Pulwama

J&K police says former CM stopped due to ‘security reasons’

Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday disallowed PDP president and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s presser in Srinagar as she was allegedly put under house arrest after she tried to visit residence of party leader Waheed Para, earlier arrested by the NIA.

“Since two days, J&K admin has refused to allow me to visit @parawahid’s family in Pulwama. BJP Ministers & their puppets are allowed to move around in every corner of Kashmir but security is a problem only in my case,” she tweeted.

Parra was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday for allegedly seeking help from the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit in seeking their support in the 2019 Parliamentary elections in which Mufti was the PDP candidate.

Later in the day a posse of policemen stopped media persons from entering Mufti’s official ‘Fairview’ residence in Gupkar area of the city where she was scheduled to address the media. “Press has been barred from entering my residence in Srinagar. This despite no written orders explaining my arbitrary detention. Kashmir is an open-air prison where no one has the right to express their opinion,” the former CM said in another tweet.

However, police while denying the allegation said Mufti was stopped due to “security reasons.”

“PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti is not under house arrest. She was requested to postpone her visit to Pulwama purely due to security reasons (sic),” J&K police tweeted.

Since last one week, the leaders of People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) have been alleging that they were not being allowed to campaign for district development council (DDC) polls while the BJP candidates were being provided every opportunity to take part in the polls election activities.

Reacting to Mufti’s alleged detention, National Conference (NC) vice president and another former CM Omar Abdullah said personal liberty is treated as a favour by the government, giving and withdrawing it at will, with no interference from the judiciary.

“Parking a truck in front of our gates is now standard operating procedure for this admin. They did the same to my father recently to stop him from praying. Personal liberty is treated as a favour by the govt, to give & withdraw at will, with no interference from the judiciary,” Omar tweeted.

On Wednesday Mufti had alleged that BJP will use grenades and guns to bag seats. The PAGD is an alliance of seven parties - National Conference (NC), PDP, CPI, CPM, Peoples Conference, Peoples Movement and Awami National Conference – and was formed on October 15 to work towards restoring the special status of J&K which was revoked last August.

First-ever DDC elections and by-elections to the panchayat and urban local bodies are being held in J&K in eight phases from November 28.