Didn’t allow BJP to crackdown on separatists: Mehbooba

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday claimed that the BJP wanted to ban Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and crackdown on separatists during their coalition government, but she did not allow them to do so.

“BJP wanted to crack down on Jamaat-e-Islami and ‘suppress’ the separatist leadership through NIA raids. However, our government did not allow the right-wing party to crack down on separatists,” she said while addressing party workers in northern Bandipora district.

Mehbooba said that the BJP wanted to carry out NIA raids on Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and other separatists as well “but my government was against any such move.”

“It was during National Conference (NC)-Congress government when Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and NIA spread their web in Kashmir,” the PDP president said and claimed at she forced BJP to have ceasefire in Kashmir for at least one month “but militants didn’t respond to it.”

“Militants were not supportive when I forced BJP to have ceasefire for a month. I wanted to have a dialogue with separatist leaders and even a parliamentary committee visited Kashmir in 2016 but they shut their doors. Dineshwar Sharma was appointed as interlocutor to have dialogue with the separatist leadership but they didn’t support it,” Mehbooba rued.