Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday drew flak for comparing displaced Kashmiris to pigeons whom she suggested would be set upon by “cats” if they were brought back to the conflict-ridden state. Mufti was speaking in the state Assembly about the People’s Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party commitment to bring Kashmiri Pandits and other migrants back to the state when she made the analogy. Mufti said the government would provide transit accommodation to the returning migrants until it was safe for them to return to their original localities.

However, she said, ““As of now, we can’t put them like pigeons among the cats… We are very clear on that.” Opposition parties said they resented the hunter-and-hunted narrative.

National Conference spokesperson Junaid Mattu said, “Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti owes an apology to the people of Kashmir for demonising and defaming them through her contemptuous and highly inappropriate ‘cats and pigeons’ analogy while speaking on the Kashmiri Pandit rehabilitation issue in the Assembly,” according to The Indian Express.