Elected PDP President For Three Years, Mehbooba Says She Will Continue To Raise Peoples’ Issues

On a day Peoples Democracy Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti was nominated as the party’s president, she said she will continue to speak about issues in spite of threats of arrests.

“I will do my job the way I am doing. A father is being denied the body of his son. At another place, a girl child got saved from kidnapping after intervention from people. These difficulties the people of Jammu and Kashmir are facing and I will continue to raise these issues. IGP has his job to do and if he thinks I am doing something against law and deserves arrest, let him do his job. I am doing my job,” she said while talking to media persons outside her office after she was nominated the party president for three years.

In his recent press conference, IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar had stated that some political leaders were instigating people. He had stated that police won’t hesitate to prepare a dossier and if needed, action would also be taken against such politicians.

Mehbooba has been raising the issue of human rights violations. On February 13, she had condemned the police for booking Mushtaq Ahmad Wani, a father of Athar Mushtaq who was killed on the Srinagar outskirts. Mehbooba Mufti alleged that the FIR, which the police claimed was on grounds of unlawful assembly, was lodged because the former had held a protest demanding the body of his son who was buried by the forces in Ganderbal, some 110 km away. The family said Athar was killed in a fake encounter.

Athar's father Mushtaq Ahmad Wani and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti alleged that the FIR, which the police claimed was on grounds of unlawful assembly, was lodged because the former had held a protest demanding the body of his son who was buried by the forces in Ganderbal, some 110 km away.

On February 16, Mehbooba tweeted that “locals in Bandipora have alleged that 3 army men tried to abduct and molest a 9-year-old girl. Her family is now being pressurised to withdraw the FIR. It’s a complete travesty of justice and an impartial probe must be set up immediately so that they are given the harshest punishment”.

She said she will be raising such issues after the PDP electoral college elected her as party president for a period of three years.

Mehbooba said the PDP would vociferously champion the cause of the people of J&K.

“PDP will work tirelessly to fulfill our shared vision of development, inclusiveness and reconciliation in J&K and never waiver from speaking up for the rights of people of Jammu and Kashmir,” she said.

“The road to peace in J&K paves through the mechanisms of dialogue and reconciliation only as envisioned by our late founder. The very ethos of PDP is about advocating and catalyzing peace, reconciliation, inclusiveness and development. And all this is not mere rhetoric but has been implemented in the short span that our party was at the helm. In these turbulent times PDP`s agenda is ever more relevant,” Mehbooba said.

“PDP has a role to articulate the aspiration of the people of J&K across the geographic and regional divide. Our people look up to us for speaking up for them whether in matters of our political identity or matters of day to day life. This is what PDP was formed for and we must stay true to our ethos as a party,” she said.