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Custodial deaths: Mehbooba stopped from meeting kin of 3 civilians
Accompanied by party workers from Rajouri and Poonch, People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti staged a sit-in as a mark of protest
On way to meet kin of three men, who were killed allegedly in army’s custody last week, former chief minister and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday was stopped at Bafliaz in Poonch district.
Consequently, the PDP president staged a sit-in as a mark of protest.
Accompanied by party workers from Rajouri and Poonch, Mufti said after being stopped by the police from visiting the families in Topa Peer village, she covered around eight km on foot but was eventually stopped from proceeding further.
“I wanted to meet the families and express my condolences but the police stopped me. They brought women police and raised concertina wires to stop me,” she said.
“On Friday night, I was given a go-ahead by the administration to meet the families but I don’t know what happened to them today. May be they want to hide something,” Mehbooba added.
It may be stated here that political leaders, including Farooq Abdullah and Ravinder Raina, separately visited the three families in the past couple of days.
“BJP president Ravinder Raina can come here, National Conference leaders can come, but they tell us that there is some threat here. I think the biggest threat here is these people. They don’t want us to meet those families. They are trying to hide something,” she said.
The videos and images of the PDP president walking towards Topa Peer and then staging a sit-in have gone viral.
“I wanted to come on last Saturday but was kept under house arrest in Srinagar and today I was stopped at Bafliaz. We were not going there to fight with anyone but to mourn the loss of human lives with their families,” she said.
Mehbooba said only change, which has come in J&K, was “militants come and kill soldiers and then army people picks up innocent and unarmed civilians and torture them to death and then people like her, who want to mourn the loss, were stopped”
“I have also heard that they (army personnel) misbehaved with women, who pleaded for the lives of their men at Bafliaz on Friday,” she said.
