Srinagar, Dec 8 (UNI) Former Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti claimed to have been put under house arrest on Tuesday to prevent her from visiting central Kashmir district of Badgam, where hundreds of families were allegedly evicted from their homes in the woods by the authorities recently.
President of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Mehbooba in a video message from inside her Fairview Gupkar residence said it has become a routine to put under detention and prevent us from meeting people in the valley.
“Whenever we want to move out to meet people, they are putting us under house arrest”, she said , adding why they are not allowing us to meet people has no answers from the government.
If everything is normal in Jammu and Kashmir as being claimed by the government, ministers and BJP leaders why are we being put under detention, she questioned. She was seen requesting security force personnel deployed outside to open the gate in the video.
Mehbooba, who was released after about 14 months detention since August 5, 2019 when Centre abrogated Article 370 and 35 besides dividing the state into two Union Territories (UTs), said she just wanted to visit the families who were evicted from their houses at Kandajan, Branwar and Zalsidara in Badgam.
People, including 108 year old woman who were made homeless by the authorities were waiting for me, she said adding she just wanted to express solidarity with these helpless families.
Earlier, taking to micro blogging site twitter Mehbooba said “ GOI wants to continue inflicting oppression & zulm on the people of J&K without any questions asked”.
She further said “ Illegal detention has become GOIs favourite go to method for muzzling any form of opposition. I've been detained once again because I wanted to visit Budgam where hundreds of families were evicted from their homes”.
Last week, Mehbooba was put under house arrest to prevent her from visiting the house of youth PDP president Waheed ur Rehman Parra who is under the detention of National Investigation Agency (NIA) for his alleged links with Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) militants. However, police denied that she was detained and claimed that for security reasons she was urged to postpone her visit.
Later, after some days Mehbooba visited the house of Parra and met his family members to express solidarity with them.
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