Mehbooba questions action against separatist leaders, calls it `arbitrary''

Srinagar, February 23

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday questioned the legality of the crackdown on Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir leaders, saying the “arbitrary” move would only “precipitate matters” in the state.

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister was reacting to the government crackdown on separatists and Jamaat-e-Islami which began on Friday night.

JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik and over two dozen Jamaat leaders, including its chief Abdul Hamid Fayaz, have already been detained.

“In the past 24 hours, Hurriyat leaders & workers of Jamaat organisation have been arrested. Fail to understand such an arbitrary move which will only precipitate matters in J&K,” Mehbooba tweeted.

“Under what legal grounds are their arrests justified? You can imprison a person but not his ideas,” she said.

The Centre has rushed 100 additional companies of paramilitary forces to Kashmir without assigning any reason for the heavy deployment. PTI