Mehbooba Mufti targets Rashid's AIP, says only PDP speaking up for jailed youths

Srinagar, Sep 10: People's Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday asserted that only her party advocates the resolution of Kashmir issue and speaks about the youths "languishing in jails".

She targeted jailed Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid's Awami Ittehad Party (AIP), saying a person in jail is contesting elections, while a poor person's family is not allowed to meet their kin in jails.

Rashid was on Tuesday granted interim bail till October 2 by a Delhi court in a terror funding case to enable him to campaign in the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections.

"The PDP is the only party which advocates resolution of Kashmir issue, which talks about the youths of J-K languishing in jails, which talks about oppression in J-K. The other parties have become worried by that, and they do not have any other option than to apologise to the people," Mehbooba Mufti told reporters in Pulwama district of south Kashmir.

On Sunday, PDP candidate from south Kashmir's Shopian assembly segment Yawar Shafi Banday was injured in an alleged attack by the workers of the AIP in the Balpora area of Shopian.

After the attack, Mufti had accused AIP of being a proxy of the BJP.

"On one hand, the parents of a poor person in jail are not allowed to meet him, but on the other hand, some people are contesting elections from jail, form parties, they are provided vehicles and security.

"When they attack our candidate, instead of the police taking action against them, the Election Commission sends notice to our candidate. By this you should come to know about the person contesting elections from inside jail," the PDP chief said.

On some former members of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) contesting the assembly polls, the PDP president said the "real JeI is suffering" due to the government's actions.

"Their schools were shut down, their orchards were occupied, they were banned, their party is being torn apart just like the PDP was torn apart.

"One person stands up saying he is the candidate of JeI, another says he is the one, but the real JeI is suffering, is in jails. The NIA, the ED are after them, all the agencies are after them," she said.

The former chief minister of the erstwhile state of J-K said the government should revoke the ban on JeI if it wants the outfit to embrace democracy.

"I want to tell the government in Delhi that if they want JeI to become a part of democracy, that the Kashmir issue be discussed within the ambit of democracy, then they should lift the ban on them, remove the occupation from their lands, open their schools.

"All this will not work here, threatening with the NIA, threatening with the ED will not work," she added.