Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday travelled to south Kashmir’s Shopian district to visit the family of a slain militant. Mufti criticized the state police for allegedly targeting the families of militants but her statement evoked sharp criticism from her rival and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah who described her as the ‘architect of Operation All Out”.
Six months after she was dismissed as Chief Minister following the withdrawal of support by the BJP, Mehbooba has for the first time began to venture into south Kashmir, once her party borough, to reach out to people, especially the kin of the militants. Last week she visited Patipora village in Pulwama district to meet the family members of a militant.
In a video clip recorded inside the militant’s house, Mehbooba is seen urging the Governor Satya Pal Malik to direct the police and other security forces not to harass the militant’s family.
She said that police is disciplined force and don’t want to harass the families of militants, but “it seems that there are directions from somewhere due to which such actions are taking place.”
“When I was Chief Minister, I also directed the police and other forces in Manigam not to harass the families of militants when you are dealing with the militants,” she said.
Last week, reacting to Mufti’s similar utterances, Governor Malik had said that Mehbooba was levelling accusations out of political compulsions to regain the lost ground.
Mehbooba also in a series of tweets decried harassment of families of militants. “No mother wants her son to pick up a gun and lose his life in the prime of his youth. Therefore harassing the family is not going to help the situation. Had my initiative of cease fire sustained many more precious lives would have been saved,” she tweeted.
In her another tweet, Mehbooba said that no force or military can help to win the war with the people.
“No force or military can help us win this war with our people. Only affection of mothers and family will help reclaim our own generation in rage,” Mehbooba tweeted.
Reacting over her frequent visits to the families of militants, former chief minister and National Conference (NC) Vice President, Omar Abdullah in his tweets said that Mehbooba Mufti is using dead militants to try to appease the voters.
In his tweet, Omar termed Mehbooba as architect of “Operation All-out”, saying that by visiting the families of militants, she is trying to rehabilitate a badly damaged reputation.
“The architect of “Operation All-out” & the overseer of the operations that killed hundreds of militants since 2015 is now going from one militant home to the next trying to rehabilitate a badly damaged reputation,” Omar tweeted.
Omar further added that Mehbooba appeased BJP by the deaths of militants and now she is using dead militants to appease the voters.
“She used militants by sanctioning their deaths to appease the BJP and now she uses dead militants to try to appease the voter. Just how gullible does she think people are?,” Omar tweeted.
The PDP reacted to Omar’s tweet. “Very unfortunate that a person who inherited massacres and whose party is responsible for pushing Kashmiris in uncertainty by rigging elections for power is saying this all. You should rather act as party and reach out to people as it is a collective responsibility,” PDP tweeted from its official twitter handle.