By The Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday prevented former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti from holding a press conference at her residence where she claims to have been “illegally detained yet again” .
A posse of policemen stopped journalists about 100 metres away from Mufti’s ‘Fairview’ residence in Gupkar where she was scheduled to address the media, reported news agency PTI. The police said the presser of the PDP president was not allowed as per the orders from the higher ups.
“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,” Mufti said.
The former chief minister has alleged the J&K administration has refused to allow her to visit the family of PDP youth wing president Waheed Rehman in Pulwama.
The police have dismissed Mufti’s claims saying she was not being placed under house arrest but was asked to postpone her visit to Pulwama due to security reasons.
Taking to Twitter, Mufti said: “BJP Ministers and their puppets are allowed to move around in every corner of Kashmir but security is a problem only in my case.” She also accused the government of arresting PDP youth leader Waheed on “baseless charges” and that she was “not allowed to even console his family”.
Ive been illegally detained yet again. 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. pic.twitter.com/U5KlWzW3FQ
— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) November 27, 2020
“Even my daughter Iltija has been placed under house arrest because she also wanted to visit Waheed’s family,” Mufti said.
“PDP leader Ms Mehbooba Mufti is not under house arrest. She was requested to postpone her visit to Pulwama purely due to security reasons,” Kashmir Zone Police said on Twitter.
File photo: Mehbooba Mufti addressing press after being released from detention. In front her is the J&K flag (in red). (File/Express Photo)
In a letter that was tweeted by Mufti, the SSP Pulwama wrote to the Director of Special Security Group Srinagar, saying no security and anti-sabotage checks of the route were done as no advance security liaison was conducted up till now.
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. https://t.co/yUjDhhZb9p
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) November 27, 2020
Former chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted: “Personal liberty is treated as a favour by the govt, to give & withdraw at will, with no interference from the judiciary.”
