“Omar even denied right to offer Friday prayers to ‘highly respected’ Syed Ali Shah Geelani”
SRINAGAR: Kashmir’s main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has criticised the government over a prominent separatist’s prolonged detention without trial.
Authorities have slapped the Public Safety Act on Mushtaq-ul-Islam for the 11th time. The Act provides for detention without trial for at least six months.
PDP president, Mehbooba Mufti accused the chief minister Omar Abdullah of “dual policy”, saying the arrest of Mushtaq-ul-Islam exposed “the wide gulf between his speeches and the actions of his government.”
“On the one hand converted Kashmir into a virtual prison and on the other is making noises about political issues which have no relevance in absence of civil liberties,” she said.
Mehbooba said the government has spared nobody and has been using PSA not only against its political opponents but against students and even children.
She said PSA had become a “preferred weapon” of successive NC-led governments to silence its opponents and muzzle the voices of dissent against its “repression, misrule and corruption.”
“It is ironical that Omar Abdullah through his fiery speeches is calling upon others to resolve Kashmir through political methods, but has caged the entire opposition either in jails or in their homes.”
The PDP leader said that a political process is all about dialogue and providing a level playing field to opponents and potential participants.
She accused Omar Abdullah of denying “even the freedom to offer prayers in mosques to highly respected leaders not to speak of upholding their right to expression which is guaranteed by our constitution.”
She was referring to the prolonged house detention of a senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who has not been allowed to move out for months now.
Mehbooba also said that it was a part of Omar’s “plan” to enforce grave yard silence in Kashmir by framing thousands of youth in false cases of stone pelting.
“By doing so this government has spoiled the career of all those youth and provided a new avenue of extortion to its agents and some policemen,” she said.
“Most of the youth have been charged with multiple cases and after they pay bribe to have one case withdrawn and another case is opened in a never ending cycle of atrocities and extortion.”
