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Mehbooba Mufti vows to fight for Valley’s youth, restore J&K’s special status
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday vowed to safeguard the future of the youth of Jammu and Kashmir by striving for the restoration of the erstwhile state’s special status.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday vowed to safeguard the future of the youth of Jammu and Kashmir by striving for the restoration of the erstwhile state’s special status.
In an interactive session with the youth wing of her party, she asked them to remain ready to fight for the “basic rights, integrity and injustice”, especially the decisions taken after August 5, 2019.
Since her release after 14 months in detention, it was the PDP chief’s first interaction with the party’s youth arm at her residence, where she asked them about the situation in their respective areas.
Extending their support to her, the youth leaders of the party said they will fight against the new laws and will never accept the unilateral changes made by the Centre after the scrapping of Article 370.
Mehbooba later said that selected youth were called by the party for the special meet. “I wanted to hear from the youth about the political and economic situation in their areas.”
People have been facing a lot of hardships since August 5 last year when the special powers of J&K were removed, said Mehbooba.
“The central government’s policy since then has been anti-people and anti-J&K. Recently, it (government) introduced the provision to prematurely retire government employees after 22 years of service. The new land laws and domicile law were also discussed in this interaction,” she told the media.
She told the youth that PDP will be on the forefront to face any situation. “I will be leading the youth in this fight. We have already fought with the task force, surrendered militants and Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). Today, our fight is for our own integrity and for resolution of the Kashmir issue. I will fight for the future of the youth.”
Ever since Mehbooba’s release from detention, the PDP workers have been actively organising meetings and protests both in Kashmir and Jammu, despite many senior PDP leaders leaving the party. Recently, three senior leaders resigned from the party in the Jammu region. However, the PDP chief has been able to galvanise the party cadres since her release.
