My refusal to crack down on Jamaat-e-Islami reason for fall of PDP-BJP alliance: Mehbooba Mufti

The alliance (PDP-BJP) crumbled after I refused to sign a pact that the bodies of slain militants won't be handed over to their families for last rites

Regional PDP president and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday revealed that her refusal to crack down on Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir and allow bodies of militants to be buried without families was a major reason for the fallout with the BJP.

"The alliance (PDP-BJP) crumbled after I was told by the BJP to sign a pact that the bodies of slain militants won't be handed over to their families for last rites and a crackdown will be launched against the Jamaat," she said while addressing party workers, here.

"I refused to agree to this plan which led to the fall of PDP-BJP alliance in J&K,” the PDP chief claimed.

While justifying the PDP's alliance with the BJP in 2015, she said, "Late Mufti (Mohammad Sayeed) sahab had joined hands with BJP only to cage a jin in a bottle so that Article 370 won’t be touched. It was done after an agreement between PDP and BJP that Article 370 won’t be touched, historic roads will be opened and a dialogue with Hurriyat leaders and Pakistan would be held. That was the Agenda of the alliance."

Mehbooba also said that closing doors to Parliament delegation by the Hurriyat leaders in September 2016 set a bad precedent across the country.

"While the PDP was in alliance with the BJP, a golden opportunity was lost when Hurriyat leaders shut their doors to the Parliament delegations. This set a bad precedent about Kashmiris across India,” she said, adding that after that another opportunity was lost by not responding to the repeated offers of Union Home Minister who stated “My doors are open for everyone.”

The PDP chief while training guns at BJP led government in New Delhi said that history is witness whenever any party comes to power, it invites other smaller parties to join them to run the governance but “We are seeing reverse of everything.”

“BJP made country’s top agencies as its partners including NIA, ED, CBI only to suppress people and intimidate them,” she alleged.

The former CM alleged that in the past two months, there is hardly any PDP worker who wasn’t intimidated, threatened, warned and now “DDC winners are being blackmailed to join other parties.”

"A person who was caught along with three guns in his car was let go and his case was withdrawn as he became BJP’s proxy,” she claimed, adding that on the contrary PDP youth president Waheed Para was put behind bars by the NIA.

“Waheed is the same person who brought 6,000 youths to former Home Minister of India’s rally in Kashmir. Despite court orders, he wasn’t allowed to take oath in jail. How can he be linked with militants if he was working to bring youth to the mainstream?” she asked.

Accusing the BJP-led regime of choking Kashmir’s economy and tarnishing the J&K’s constitution by scrapping Article 370, Mehbooba said: “We will fight for our rights. We are not the ones who would raise white flags. No matter how far BJP goes in choking Kashmir's economy and making us dependent on all fronts, we will not bow."