Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday said that the day will surely come when not only Articles 370 and 35-A will be restored but the people of Jammu and Kashmir would be given much more.
Currently, on a three-day visit to the Rajouri and Poonch districts, she also termed the present BJP government “oppressor” and equated the people of the UT with the “oppressed”.
Addressing party workers at Mendhar town in Poonch, Mehbooba said, “Earlier, when the situation was bad in J&K, we could see and identify the enemy. He could be a gun-wielding militant or in the form of security forces, who used to harass people.”
“But today, we can’t see the face of the enemy…it doesn’t have a face but it is everywhere. If anyone talks about something, the police pick him up in the evening… This is the situation in Kashmir…Of fear and suffocation,” she claimed.
“They snatched our jobs and land. Thousands of our youths continue to languish in jails across the country and so poor are their parents that they have to seek alms and donations to go and meet them,” she added.
She also took a swipe at UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over his remarks on people from other states buying plots in J&K.
“A CM says that plots will be provided to people in J&K now. Before selling plots to people in J&K, he should provide food and shelter to homeless people in UP,” she said.
Recalling PM Modi’s all-party meet in June, she said, “I told the PM that I have come here to tell you that people in J&K feel suffocated. I told him that they are the same people who gave their life-fighting Pakistanis in 1947.”
