Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday alleged that her colleagues, friends and family members were being targeted by Central investigating agencies as the BJP had failed to “fight her politically”, while National Conference (NC) president Dr. Farooq Abdullah said, “No coercive tactics will dilute or dent our collective resolve.”
Ms. Mufti said the BJP had seen that when it faced them [the J&K Opposition] politically, as in the District Development Council (DDC) polls, it had to bite the dust. “It [the BJP] is using the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as mistresses and employing them to harass and raid my colleagues, friends and relatives to invent a case against me. As they failed to find any corruption case, they invented terror cases,” Ms. Mufti said.
Claiming that she might be booked soon by the Central investigating agencies, Ms. Mufti said, “I am asking the BJP to fight me politically and not misuse the agencies against my relatives. I am aware this press conference could be my last one. These agencies are auditing my late father’s graveyard, my relatives’ properties. The ED raided the houses and offices of two of my colleagues today. Three party leaders, Sartaj Madni, Peer Mansoor and Naeem Akhtar, are jailed without any formal orders,” Ms. Mufti said.
She alleged that PDP youth president Waheed Parra, who won the DDC polls, was interrogated by the NIA and asked “to depose against” her. “Parra was tortured to accept the militant links,” she added.
Meanwhile, top leaders of the National Conference (NC) met in Srinagar, where party leaders addressed the workers.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Abdullah said the DDC victory had frontally and suggestively pronounced that the people of J&K stood with the idea behind the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD).
“I am a son of the Sher-e-Kashmir [Sheikh Abdullah]. They won’t be able to cringe my resolve by coercive tactics. I am not frightened,” Dr. Abdullah said. His property was recently seized by the ED in an alleged cricket scam.
Dr. Abdullah said the people [of J&K] had “audaciously made known their rejection for the August 5 measures undertaken by ruling BJP”.
Speaking on the occasion, NC vice president Omar Abdullah said the BJP was selling the results as a triumph of democracy. “Surely, if democracy has won then the BJP should now waste no time and accept the democratic verdict of people against the August 5 2019 decisions,” he said.
“Despite beating every drum that people of J&K were happy with the decisions of August 5 and that the PAGD platform was ‘anti-national’, the BJP stands lost in these elections. The success assumes more significance in the face of the smear campaign,” he said.
