PDP claims police did not allow youth wing meeting in Anantnag

By: Javeed Bhat MK

Srinagar

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday claimed that police and authorities did not allow the youth wing of the party to hold a meeting and said that even the members of her party were “roughed up”.

This claim of Mehbooba Mufti has come close to heels of a letter sent by Tehsildar in Kulgam asking her to explain why she breached the covid protocol while holding a public meeting in the district recently.

According to PTI in its report on the allegations leveled by Mehbooba Mufti it has said, Mehbooba, a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said the Centre wants to justify its “iron-fist approach by branding all Kashmiris as perpetrators of violence”.

“PDP youth is not being allowed to conduct a meeting in Bijbehara today. The gates leading to Mufti sahab’s grave have been locked & blocked with barbed wires. Can @JmuKmrPolice explain why were these young men roughed up?” Mehbooba said on Twitter.

The PDP president said preventing the PDP youth from holding a meeting in South Kashmir reinforces GOIs (Government of India’s) strategy of not allowing any meaningful political engagement especially the one that involves Kashmiri youngsters .

“GOI wants to justify their iron fist approach by branding all Kashmiris as perpetrators of violence,” she said.

Mehbooba said the daily encounters where militants are killed have become a “source of celebration” for the Centre, but the PDP does not believe in violence.

“We want to fight peacefully & politically. By discouraging political activities GOI is pushing Kashmiris to the wall,” she said.

Later, the activists of the party’s youth wing protested the police’s action and called for the restoration of electoral democracy.

With PTI inputs