Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday said she was denied a passport on the grounds that it was “detrimental to the security of India”.
The PDP president said that her passport was denied on the basis of a report by J-K Police’s Criminal Investigative Department (CID).
While posting the letter of regional passport officer, Srinagar, on Twitter, Mehbooba Mufti tweeted, “Passport Office refused to issue my passport based on CID’s report citing it as ‘detrimental to the security of India. This is the level of normalcy achieved in Kashmir since Aug 2019 that an ex Chief Minister holding a passport is a threat to the sovereignty of a mighty nation.”
The letter mentioned that the additional director-general of police, J-K CID, has not recommended the issuance of a passport to Mufti.
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Mufti had already moved the High Court for issuance of the passport as she has applied for it last year.
Sources, however, said that the PDP chief was denied a clearance by the CID after her name popped up during an investigation suggesting her links with certain “anti-national people”. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is already probing a case of money distribution to militants via PDP youth president Waheed ur Rehman Para who was detained by the NIA.
{{/usCountry}}Sources, however, said that the PDP chief was denied a clearance by the CID after her name popped up during an investigation suggesting her links with certain “anti-national people”. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is already probing a case of money distribution to militants via PDP youth president Waheed ur Rehman Para who was detained by the NIA.
{{/usCountry}}The NIA charge sheet, which focuses on Para’s role in supporting terror and secessionist activities in Jammu and Kashmir, said, “Para gave ₹5 crore in 2016 to Altaf Ahmad Shah alias Fantoosh to keep the situation boiling in Kashmir valley after the killing of HM terrorist Burhan Wani.”
The NIA, in its charge sheet, said that Funtoosh is separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s son-in-law and a member of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference. He was arrested in July 2017 in a J&K terror funding case.
According to the investigation agency, Funtoosh was a close associate of Para and the two maintained contact during the turmoil in the wake of Wani’s killing. “Even the CID had furnished the report against Mehbooba Mufti which is one of the reasons her passport has been denied,” said an officer privy to details.
Party additional spokesperson Najmu Saqib said that Waheed Ur Rehman Para is being victimised for standing by and fiercely advocating the Peoples Democratic Party’s political agenda and the charges are nothing but a pernicious attempt to muzzle the voices of Kashmir.
Last week, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti was also questioned by the ED officials in Srinagar for five hours. Soon after she came out from the ED office, she said that the country isn’t ruled as per the Constitution. Mehbooba Mufti said that they (the central government) couldn’t find anything against her as she is clean so now they are using central agencies like the ED and the NIA against her and other leaders of her party.