Peoples Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter Iltija Mufti has sought information on detentions in Jammu and Kashmir on behalf of her mother. In a tweet on Friday, Iltija Mufti said she wrote to the Union home secretary and his counterpart in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 but was yet to receive a response.
Mehbooba Mufti was detained along with several other political leaders, including former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, on August 5 before the Centre announced its decision to scrap Jammy and Kashmir’s special status.
Iltija Mufti has sought information on the number of minors and women detained or arrested. “The number of residents of the state of J&K who were detained/arrested or put under house arrest on or after 05.08.2019,” she w rote. “Please provide this information tabulated by district and police station, and their current status (eg ‘detained’, ‘released’ or ‘under house-arrest etc).”
She also asked for details of detenues moved out of the state, the number of deaths, people booked under the Public Safety Act and areas that are still under prohibitory orders.
“I am reiterating here that I am not a politician or a person with political affiliation,” Iltiji Mufti added. “I am doing this on behalf and for my mother who is a politician, and a president of a registered political party.”
On Independence Day, Iltija Mufti wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, questioning him about Centre’s decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. “Kashmiris have been caged like animals” while the rest of the country was celebrating, she added in the letter to Shah.
On August 6, Iltija Mufti had called the Centre’s decisions “completely undemocratic”, and said her mother’s arrest was to “break her spirit”.
She subsequently moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to the authorities to allow her to meet her mother. The top court on September 5 allowed her to meet the former chief minister.
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