Monitor News Bureau
People detained since last year in Kashmir deserve to be released as their “incarceration” even in times of a global pandemic “undermines our democratic credentials”, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter Iltija Mufti said on Tuesday.
Iltija’s remarks came on a day her mother, who was detained under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA), is being shifted to her official residence that has been converted into a subsidiary jail where she would continue to be in detention.
“All Kashmiris illegally detained since 5th August deserve freedom.Their continued incarceration even in times of a global pandemic undermines our democratic credentials. Nevertheless, I’d like to thank everyone for their support and good wishes,” Iltija wrote on her mother’s Twitter handle.
She has been tweeting from Mehbooba’s handle ever since the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister was put under detention in August last year. Mehbooba was detained on August 5 last year when the Centre abrogated the special status of the erstwhile state and divided it into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
Initially, she was taken into preventive custody. Later on February 6 this year, she was slapped with the PSA along with another former chief minister Omar Abdullah, who was released recently.
While expressing gratitude to the media, Iltija requested that the family be given privacy as it waited for Mehbooba to come home. “My gratitude to the media in Kashmir for their concern & well wishes. May I please humbly request that you give the family privacy as we wait for her to come home today. Please remember this isn’t a release & the house has been declared as a subsidiary jail,” she said.
