Police foils protest march of PDP
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR/ JAMMU, Aug 5: Former Chief Minister and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president, Mehbooba Mufti today said that August 5 marks ‘a black day’ for the entire nation, and the abrogation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was the ‘beginning of a broader assault’ on constitutional values of the country.
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The PDP claimed that its president, along with party workers, was stopped from stepping out of the party office in Srinagar to take out a protest demonstration against the `unilateral and unconstitutional’ abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019.
“August 5 marks a black day not just for Jammu & Kashmir, but for the entire nation. On this day, the Constitution was subverted not by foreign hands, but from within, by a brute majority in the heart of our democracy,” Mehbooba Mufti said in a post on X.
She said the ‘unconstitutional’ abrogation of J&K’s special status was not an end, “it was the beginning of a broader assault on constitutional values”.
“J&K was turned into a Laboratory, its people disempowered, its land dispossessed, its demography targeted. What many saw as a local issue was a warning for all,” Mufti alleged.
“Today, that warning is unfolding across the country. In Bihar threatens to disenfranchise lakhs. From Tamil Nadu to Kashmir non-local voters are being added en-mass, paving the way for demographic manipulation and electoral distortion,” she added. “If India does not wake up now, what began in J&K will soon define the nation,” she said.
While criticizing the Government for imposing curbs on its leaders, the PDP leaders said, “Suppressing democratic dissent has become the new normal in Kashmir”.
They said PDP leaders and workers assembled at the party office and tried to take out a protest march against the abrogation of Article 370 on its sixth anniversary, but were not allowed by the police to move out.
The party leaders and workers then staged the protest march at the party office.
Speaking to reporters, PDP leader Iltija Mufti said, “On August 5, 2019, the illegal abrogation of Article 370 was done, and the Constitution and the flag of J&K were taken away from us”.
“This is the change that has taken place in the six years. We are a legal party, and even six years after the abrogation of Article 370, we are not being allowed to protest. We were put under house arrest six years ago and the common people of J&K, and political parties were put under arrest,” she said.
She said there has been no change even after six years.
“We have been kept here inside PDP office like animals. A CRPF vehicle has been stationed here and we are not being allowed to move forward. We told them that we wanted to take out a peaceful protest. But were not allowed. Nothing has changed here,” she claimed
Iltija Mufti asked which part of the Indian Constitution is being implemented here? “We are being stripped off our fundamental right to speak and peacefully protest. Not just our special status, flag, and constitution, but efforts are being made to take our voices as well,” she asserted.
The PDP activists also held a protest outside their office at Gandhinagar, Jammu to seek restoration of statehood. The party leaders and workers, carrying banners and placards in hands shouted slogans against the BJP and alleged that this party has caused much damage to Jammu than anybody else. They demanded early restoration of Statehood.
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