Mehbooba Mufti Detained Again Over Plans to Visit Arrested PDP Leader Waheed Para's Family, Daughter Placed Under House Arrest

Authorities on Friday disallowed PDP president Mehbooba Mufti’s press conference in Srinagar as the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir was allegedly put under house arrest and not allowed to visit the Pulwama residence of party leader Waheed Para, earlier arrested by the NIA. A posse of policemen stopped journalists about 100 m away from Mufti’s ‘Fairview’ residence in Gupkar area of the city where she was scheduled to address the media.

The policemen said the presser was not allowed as per orders from higher-ups. Mufti had invited journalists for the press conference this morning after she was put under house arrest. The former chief minister said she was not allowed for the last two days to meet Para’s family and that he was arrested on baseless charges.

“I’ve been illegally detained yet again. Since two days, J&K admin has refused to allow me to visit @parawahid’s family in Pulwama. BJP Ministers and their puppets are allowed to move around in every corner of Kashmir but security is a problem only in my case,” Mehbooba said in a tweet earlier. She said her daughter has also been put under the house arrest.

“Their cruelty knows no bounds. Waheed was arrested on baseless charges & I am not allowed to even console his family. Even my daughter Iltija has been placed under house arrest because she also wanted to visit Waheed’s family,” Mufti said on Twitter.

In a tweet, the Kashmir Zone Police said Mufti is not under house arrest and that she was requested to postpone her visit to Pulwama “purely due to security reasons”.

In a communication posted by Mufti on her official twitter handle, Additional Director General of Police and Director Special Security Group (SSG) SD Singh sought rescheduling of the proposed visit to Naira village on the demand of the Pulwama district police. The police cited neither an anti-sabotage check nor a proper route sanitisation had been done as the entire manpower was committed for other election related operation duties.

Reacting to the alleged detention, National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah said personal liberty was being treated as a favour by the government that gave and withdrew it at will, with no interference from the judiciary.

Jammu and Kashmir is all set for the maiden District Development Council (DDC) polls and by-elections to the panchayat and urban local bodies, scheduled to be held in eight phases beginning November 28. Parra was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday for allegedly seeking help from Hizbul Mujahideen terror group in seeking their support in the 2019 Parliamentary elections in which Mufti was the PDP candidate.

Mufti had sought security clearance for her visit to the residence of Parra at Naira village on Friday to meet his family. NC vice president Omar Abdullah accused the Jammu and Kashmir administration of treating personal liberty as a favour.

“Parking a truck in front of our gates is now standard operating procedure for this admin. They did the same to my father recently to stop him from praying. Personal liberty is treated as a favour by the govt, to give & withdraw at will, with no interference from the judiciary,” Omar Abdullah wrote on Twitter. His father and NC president Farooq Abdullah was on October 30 prevented from leaving his residence to offer prayers at Hazratbal shrine on the occasion of Eid-Milad-un-Nabi.

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