SRINAGAR: PDP chief and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said that their fight was not against the countrymen, but against the BJP government, which snatched ‘our honour and respect illegally’ on August 5, 2019. She alleged that the administration was blackmailing the newly-elected District Development Council (DDC) members to shift their loyalties.
Mufti claimed that her coalition government collapsed after she refused the BJP’s demands of launching a crackdown on Jamaat-e-Islami, not handing over bodies of militants to their families, and booking more youth under the PSA. She was addressing the party’s elected DDC members and workers at PDP headquarters in Srinagar “Till we get our respect and honour back, and play our role in the resolution of the Kashmir issue, PDP is not going anywhere,” Mehbooba.
Referring to the party’s performance in DDC polls, where it won 27 seats, Mehbooba said, “The enemies had written our obituaries, but this election shows that PDP is not an ordinary party but a movement.” “They (the government) had thought that we (Gupkar Alliance) will not participate and they could do whatever they like.
However, our contesting the polls in unison, and the results, has frustrated the BJP. They are now on an arrest spree,,” she alleged. Alleging that the BJP was making a mockery of democracy, she said, “Our elected DDC members and independent victors are being blackmailed, threatened, and offered money to shift loyalties towards the proxy of BJP.”