SRINAGAR: Iltija Mufti, the daughter of PDP chief and former J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who has been granted a country-specific two-year passport, has alleged that she is facing tremendous pressure to withdraw a petition from the J&K High Court on the issuance of the passport. However, J&K police have refuted her allegations.
“The passport issued to me by the Regional Passport Officer on April 5 is valid for the UAE only with two-year validity,” Iltija told reporters in Srinagar.
She said that after the expiry of her passport, she had applied for a new one in June last year. After being denied her passport, she approached J&K High Court where the case is being heard.
Alleging that the judiciary was misled, Iltija said, “The Regional Passport Officer informed the court that they have issued the passport to me. The Deputy Solicitor General of India Shamsi told the judge that the petition should be dismissed as passport has been provided. But what kind of passport is this (country-specific and valid for two years instead of 10 years)”.
“I am a law-abiding Indian citizen. I have not broken any law. And for issuing this two-year passport, the Official Secrets Act was invoked against me. This Act is invoked against a person found involved in espionage,” she said.
“Am I a terrorist? Am I anti-national? If I speak out against the central government, does it mean that I am attacking the country? Expressing myself is my fundamental right as an Indian citizen,” she further said.
Taking a dig at authorities for issuing her country-specific passport, Iltija said, “Right to travel abroad is a fundamental right and I am being deprived of that. No agency can snatch this right. It is happening with the daughter of an ex-CM. I am not entitled to a passport because I am an ex-CM's daughter but entitled to the passport for being a law-abiding Indian citizen”.
“If this is happening with me, then the plight of normal Kashmiris can only be imagined,” she said.
Iltija, who was politically very active post Article 370 revocation and arrest of her mother, alleged that her lawyer is being pressurized to withdraw the petition.
However, she asserted that she will not withdraw this petition.
"I will not withdraw the petition despite us facing tremendous pressure. I will continue to fight in the court and I have full faith in the judiciary that they will issue the orders for issuance of my passport,” she said.
Iltija accused J&K Police’s CID of playing a bad role and criminalising basic things such as passport issuance in Kashmir at the behest of the Central government. J&K police, however, have rejected her allegations.
In a statement, police said it has come across several items in the media suggesting that its intelligence and counterintelligence wing among other things is pressurizing litigants to withdraw from the process of redressing their grievances through courts of law.
“Ordinarily, law enforcement agencies do not rush to the public to discuss its work processes and procedures, especially those that are legally ordained to be discreet in the public interest,” it said.
“Since some of the published items contain outrightly false assertions attributed to figures with the public profile it has become necessary to point out the untruthfulness of the claims. On learning that accusations have been made that CID of J&K Police has pressurized a litigant to refrain from litigating in the High Court in connection with her passport-related grievances, a quick internal audit was carried out. J&K Police can affirm that the claim of such pressure is completely false,” it said.
Police further said officers are being detailed to approach the aggrieved person and ascertain details – who pressurized, when, where and under what circumstances so that the quick internal inquiry if found inadequate can be expanded to take suitable disciplinary action against the delinquent.
“Unfortunately, the public person has apparently projected her personal grievance as also to be the grievance of the public in general in Kashmir. This is very problematic. J&K Police and its affiliates are public institutions and designed to serve public interest. Denigrating the community’s own institutions for grievances that are personal on the basis of false accusations is self harm,” it said.
The police said in 2020 out of 77686 passport verifications received, 77644 (99.95%) were cleared. “Similarly, in 2021: out of 75714 passport verifications received, 75176 (99.68%) were cleared and in 2022 out of 134315 passport verifications received, 128939 (99.61%) were cleared”.