Mehbooba Mufti not allowed to visit Poonch village, questions restrictions

Rajouri, Dec 30: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti was not allowed to visit Topi Peer village near Bufliyaz in Poonch district on Saturday and was detained enroute.

She was on her way to a remote village to meet the families of three men who allegedly died after Army questioning after a terror attack in the DKG forest area last week.

As per reports, the former chief minister reached Surankote’s Bufliyaz on Saturday afternoon and was on her way to Topi Peer when her cavalcade was stopped at Bufliyaz by the officials of the local administration.

Accompanied by party leaders and workers, Mehbooba started a foot march towards the village but was again intercepted by the officials of the Police and local administration.

Protesting against what she alleged, was the “high-handedness of government authorities”, Mehbooba staged a sit-in on the road connecting Bufliyaz with Dehre Ki Gali.

The dharna continued for around an hour after which the former chief minister and other leaders of PDP were detained by Police from the site and shifted to Surankote sub-division headquarters.

The former chief minister later visited Sub District Hospital (SDH) Surankote and met some local men, who are undergoing treatment at this civil hospital.

“I am pained over all this. This is unfortunate and shows that people have suffered a lot after this incident,” Mehbooba said interacting with those hospitalised at SDH Surankote.

The people under treatment at the hospital are from the Topi Peer village of Bufliyaz in the Surankote sub-division of Poonch.

They were allegedly detained by the Army after last week’s terror attack and later hospitalised with multiple injuries.

Three men from the village also died in the incident following which a case of murder was also registered at Police Station Surankote while the Army also ordered a Court of Inquiry into the incident.

Senior PDP leader, Tazeem Dar, who was accompanying the former chief minister during her visit, said that the party leader was on her way to Topi Peer village to meet victim families and to heal their wounds which they received for no fault.

Meanwhile, Mehbooba questioned the restriction on her visit to Topi Peer, while terming her detention as “illegal”.

She said that BJP President Ravinder Raina and NC leaders were allowed to visit the area.

“But there is a threat factor when PDP leaders want to visit there,” Mehbooba said.

“We were not going there to disturb the situation but to meet the victim families, heal their wounds, and to stand with them during this tough period,” she said. “Terrorists came and killed Army personnel and Army personnel reacted and killed civilians and all this is unfortunate.”