Umar arrested because of his religion: Mehbooba

SRINAGAR: Alleging that ex-JNU student Umar Khalid had been arrested in the Delhi riots case because of his faith, detained PDP chief and former J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti on Monday tweeted that "not crime but religion determines if one is to be jailed in India".
Mehbooba, whose Twitter handle has been operated by her daughter Iltija for more than a year since her detention, said: "No coincidence that Umar and Safoora (Zargar) are imprisoned but Kapil (Mishra) and Komal (Sharma) are out and about."
PDP's youth wing president Waheed Ur Rehman Para picked up from where his party chief left off, accusing BJP of instigating violence and punishing someone else for it. "Umar's arrest is part of the campaign against the minority community and endorses discrimination," he said. "The Delhi riots were instigated by a section of BJP functionaries, and their hate speeches are all over media. But we don’t see any action against them. It’s a selective action to choke and muzzle the voices of those who stand up to power and stand for minorities' rights."
In Srinagar and Jammu, CPM members held demonstrations against Delhi Police's chargesheet implicating party general secretary Sitaram Yechury and others in the Delhi riots earlier this year.
Besides Srinagar's Residency Road, there were protests outside the divisional commissioner's office in Jammu and in Anantnag and Kulgam.
The CPM also demanded the unconditional release of all political prisoners detained since August 5 last year by slapping "cooked-up charges" on them. Mehbooba, the only top-rung mainstream political functionary still in custody, has had her incarceration under the Public Safety Act extended already twice this year.