Mufti claims govt uses Section 144 to stifle dissent over violation of rights

PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has alleged that the government used Section 144 of the CrPC as a tool to clamp on dissent following “violations of human rights and dignity”

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday said the imposition of Code of Criminal Procedure’s Section 144, which prohibits the gathering of over four people, wherever “human rights and dignity is trampled” has emerged as the government’s preferred approach. “This government shows no hesitation in using an iron fist with its own people but welcomes Chinese troops with open arms,” Mufti said in a tweet.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti criticised government’s approach to deal with protests (HT Photo/File/Representative use)

She did not provide the context to her tweet. But it came as Section 144 was imposed in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri to prevent opposition leaders from going there to meet families of people killed in the violence during a farmer protest on Sunday. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was detained en route to Lakhimpur Kheri on Monday.

Mufti said the situation cannot even be compared with the “oppression unleashed” in Jammu and Kashmir since the nullification of the region’s semi-autonomous status in 2019 but the “common denominators” are obvious. “What started in J&K (Jammu and Kashmir) was sadly met with an air of indifference & has now engulfed the entire country. When will we speak up?” she said in another tweet.