Key J&K Opposition Politicians Placed Under House Arrest

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir authorities on Monday placed several key opposition leaders including former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti under house detention and took other restrictive measures to hold back anti-government demonstrations planned by them on the 5th anniversary of the Centre’s stripping the erstwhile state of its special status and splitting it up into two Union Territories.

However, the BJP celebrated what it insists was the “historic undoing of a historical blunder” by holding rallies in the twin capitals of Srinagar and Jammu and other places across the UT. It also claimed that the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution ushered in an era of peace and opportunity for the people of J&K and that Ladakh too is moving ahead in every sphere of life and, therefore, “We celebrate this occasion with immense joy and optimism".

However, Ms Mufti in a post on ‘X’ asserted that the 5th of August 2019 “will go down in history not just as a dark day for J&K, but a blot on Indian democracy”. She said that it was the day “when a semi-autonomous state was disempowered, dismembered and robbed of everything special and sacrosanct to us”.

She added, “Since then the state has been threatened into silence which is touted as ‘peace and normalcy’ to the rest of the country. Five years on the siege continues but so does the unyielding defiance and resistance. We Kashmiris refuse to be erased and unpeopled”.

Her daughter and media advisor Iltija Mufti said that she and her mother were put under house detention which has become a routine for the police to stop the opponents of the government from reaching out to the people on such occasions. “If Kashmir is as normal as Government of India claims it to be, why does J&K police place us under illegal house arrest on 5th August every year? The arrogance is such that SHO Nowgam has locked us up inside our own house and taken the keys away. Cops or new-age jailers? You decide”.

National Conference (NC) said that the government “once again unjustly placed our leaders under house arrest, effectively isolating the party headquarters Nawa-e-Subha in Srinagar”. It added, “This blatant suppression of mainstream democratic activities only serves to showcase the administration's underlying fear and exposes the hollowness of their claims of progress over the past five years. August 5, 2019, remains a stark reminder of the disempowerment of the people of J&K, a process that continues unchecked with the absence of a democratically elected government in the region.”

The authorities had put the security grid across J&K on an alert ahead of the fifth anniversary of abrogation of Article 370, with the Army and other security forces instructed to observe a ‘dry day’ and avoid movement of convoys on Monday.

Also, the movement of convoys of Amarnath pilgrims between various base camps was not allowed whereas no fresh batch of yatries left Jammu’s Bhagwati Nagar base camp for the Kashmir Valley. The officials termed these restrictions as a precautionary measure. However, the security agencies assigned the task of road opening duties for Amarnath yatra routes and national highways including NH 44 had been asked to continue their work and keep their deployment active.

As BJP activists took out a procession from a party office here to celebrate the abrogation of Article 370, former chief minister and NC vice president took to microblogging site ‘X’ to say, “This is what passes for democracy & free speech in J&K. A handful of BJP “leaders” are encouraged to celebrate today while those who would have registered their protest against what was done to J&K are locked up in homes across the Valley”.

The BJP shrugged the criticism off and said that its leaders and activists from across the region gathered to “commemorate the significant milestone; acknowledging the transformative changes that have unfolded in the Kashmir Valley since the abrogation of Article 370.” It added, “The leaders expressed their satisfaction and pride in witnessing a profound shift towards peace and stability in the region”. Both in Srinagar and Jammu, the BJP’s celebrations were marked by the distribution of sweets.