In New Delhi’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti issued a serious warning to the BJP-led Central government saying that trying to divide people and interfering in Jammu and Kashmir will give birth to more separatist leaders.
On Friday, while speaking to reporters the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said: “If Delhi tries to dismiss the voting rights of people like in 1987, if it tries to create divisions and interfere like that, then I think a Salahuddin and a Yasin Malik will be born…. if it tries to break PDP like that, the outcomes will be dangerous.”
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Referring to 1987 elections in Jammu and Kashmir, which gave an impression that rigged polls helped Farooq Abdullah become the chief minister of the state and led to the birth of insurgency in the state Mehbooba said it is seen as a turning point in Kashmir’s geo-political landscape as many of the parties contesting the elections such as the Jamaat-e-Islami, the People’s Conference and the Ittihad-ul-Muslimeen which lost are now part of the main separatist alliance in the Valley. Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik were “born” during this time.
These comments were received from her when PDP members rebeled against her “dynastic rule” and are attempting to form a third front with a National Conference-Congress combine or even with the Bharatiya Janata Party PDP’s former alliance partner in the state to stake claim to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir.
In revert BJP rebuffed the allegations of putting in efforts to return to power in the state and said its party’s priority was restoration of law and order and not government formation.