JAMMU: Former chief minister and People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti and his party functionaries were stopped inside a forest area on Saturday and not allowed to meet the families of three Gujjar civilians, who were allegedly tortured to death by the Army last week.
Mehbooba and her party leaders staged a sit-in on the forest road in protest against the police action. She and her party members fiercely resisted the police but they were packed in the waiting vehicles and sent back.
Her party PDP posted through their official handle on X saying, “PDP President @Mehbooba Mufti faced police obstruction on her way to Bafliyaz, Poonch. Unyielding, she proceeded on foot, reaching village to extend solidarity & heartfelt condolence to families of the 3 civilians despite being stopped by the police in the middle of the road.”
PDP President
faced police obstruction on her way to Bafliyaz, Poonch. Unyielding, she proceeded on foot, reaching village to extend solidarity & heartfelt condolences to families of the 3 civilians despite being stopped by the police in the middle of the road.
Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Ravinder Raina was, however, allowed to visit the village, Topa Mastandara, and meet the families on Thursday.
On Friday, former chief minister Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference was allowed to meet the survivors of the alleged army torture at a hospital in Surankote, Poonch.
The Telegraph quoting local people said they were not being allowed to get any closer to Topa Mastandara than Bafliaz, a township 10 km from the village.
Mehbooba and her team too were stopped at Bafliaz but she refused to relent and set off on foot along a difficult forest route. She said she had been given the green light for the visit on Friday evening.
But a large police contingent, armed with concertina wire, stopped her a short distance from Topa Mastandara. Her supporters chanted slogans against “political terrorism.”
“We have walked some 7km but have been stopped when we are just 4-5km away. I will sit here through the night rather than leave this place,” Mehbooba told reporters.
Mohammad Sidiq, elected panchayat member of Topa Mastandara and nephew of the slain Showkat Hussain, said Mehbooba was stopped 3 kilometers m from the village.
“They neither allowed her to come here nor allowed us to go and meet her. Men and women of our village were eager to meet her but they did not allow it,” Sidiq told The Telegraph.
As Mehbooba staged a sit-in, the police started picking up her supporters, who had thrown a ring around her.
For some time, she sat alone on the ground, encircled by the police. She fiercely resisted bids by two policewomen to drag her away, asking them to bring arrest warrants.
“Militants come, kill army men and leave. Then army men come and kill innocent unarmed civilians,” Mehbooba told reporters.
The PDP also posted a video saying, “BJP leader Ravinder Raina, National Conference leaders can visit the place but we are told there is danger and we can’t proceed. I think they (the administration) are the biggest danger.”
She was heard saying: “You (the government) killed people in such a bad way that the father of one of them said he could not hug the body of his son. He said his body had been stitched up because of multiple injuries. They were subjected to electric shocks. You have turned the situation so bad but don’t allow us to apply balm.”
Mehbooba claimed the reason the team was not allowed to meet the families was that the government had something to hide. “We are not going there to create a ruckus,” she said.
“How is it (the visit) a sin? They (government) keep saying that everything is fine here and streams of milk are flowing. But then why stop us?”
Tazeem Dar, a local PDP leader, said the entire team, including Mehbooba, was forcibly put into vehicles and sent back to Bafliaz after a spirited resistance.
The site of Mehbooba’s sit-in was close to the place where militants ambushed army vehicles on December 21, killing four jawans and injuring three.
Army sources said the anti-militancy operation had been called off on Friday after the forces failed to hunt down the militants involved in the attack.
On Thursday, while meeting the families, Raina had pledged “big punishment” for the “culprits”, betraying the BJP’s fears that the alleged custody killings could damage its political prospects.
The three slain men were tribal Muslim Gujjars, a community the BJP has been courting.
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