Srinagar: Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti scuffled with police personnel on Monday (August 25) during a protest, organised by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Srinagar, demanding the transfer back of political prisoners to jails within the Union territory.

After chief minister Omar Abdullah, the PDP president is the second prominent politician to find herself in a clash against the J&K police personnel, who report directly to the lieutenant governor since J&K lost its special status in 2019 and the erstwhile state was downgraded into a Union territory.

Speaking on Mufti's protest, chief minister Abdullah told reporters in Srinagar that the fate of J&K’s political prisoners “was a matter of concern for all of us”.

“But doing this (protest) in Srinagar won’t change anything. The decisions on J&K’s security are taken in Delhi. Like we have done, she (Mufti) should raise the issue with the (Union) home minister (Amit Shah). But if it is an act of self-publicity, no one should have any objection,” he said, taking a jibe at the PDP president.

However, Mufti’s demand evoked support from the moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who said that the “relief and release” of the political prisoners languishing in jails in and outside J&K was the "moral responsibly of all Kashmiris”.

“A joint effort in this regard by all is the need of the hour, if we really want to help them. Playing politics even on this humanitarian issue will be a shame. I appeal to all political and social groups and members of the civil society to come together and, let us jointly strive for the Release of prisoners,” he said in a post on X.

The protest

The scuffle took place on Monday morning when Mufti took out a protest march along with other PDP leaders from the party headquarters in Srinagar, demanding that the political prisoners languishing in jails outside Jammu and Kashmir should be transferred to local jails.

"Bail, not jail," read a poster waved by PDP leaders during the rally.

However, a police team prevented Mufti and other protesters from marching towards Lal Chowk, the commercial hub of the capital city, which remains bustling with shoppers and office goers for most part of the day.

A video that circulated on social media showed the PDP president scuffling with police personnel on the road outside the party headquarters when they allegedly tried to pull her back and stop her from marching ahead. The police action was resented by the party leaders and workers accompanying Mufti who resorted to sloganeering against “hooliganism”.

Denouncing the police action, the PDP president said, “After the Pahalgam (terrorist attack), if they (police) had shown the same urgency with which they stopped our workers today, then the war with Pakistan would have never happened. We are being treated as if we are some enemies.”

Later, speaking with the media, she urged that the chief minister should raise the issue of “thousands of political prisoners” who are incarcerated in different jails outside Jammu and Kashmir with the Union home minister Amit Shah.

“Be it (J&K Democratic Freedom Party president) Shabir Shah or Ameer-e-Jamaat (Jamaat-e-Islami chief Hameed Fayaz), their families had to struggle a lot to provide them medical treatment when they were diagnosed with serious diseases. If this is the fate of senior leaders, imagine what the ordinary and poor prisoners would be going through,” she told the media outside the PDP headquarters.

Shabir Shah has been reportedly diagnosed with malignancy while Fayaz had to undergo an emergency surgery. Both are incarcerated in New Delhi’s Tihar jail under anti-terror charges.

Without taking names, Mufti said that a youngster from Pulwama has been languishing in jail for the last 10 years as an accused in an anti-terror case, “Only half of the witnesses have deposed in the trial while the other half have yet to do so”.

She added, “Rapists and murderers like (Dera Sacha Sauda chief) Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh get multiple bails while our prisoners who are only accused of committing some crimes and not convicted are denied these legal remedies”.

Referring to a resolution on the issue of political prisoners, brought by the PDP in the recent session of J&K assembly, which was not entertained by the ruling National Conference, she urged Abdullah to form an all-party delegation for a firsthand assessment of the condition of J&K’s prisoners who are languishing in jails outside the Union territory.

“If you don’t want an all-party delegation, set up a team of your ministers to visit these jails. Leave aside politics, do this for the sake of humanity. I am not telling you this as a politician or the PDP president but as a mother, as a sister and as a daughter, meet the home minister and tell him that if they can’t release our prisoners, at least send them back to jails of J&K so that their trails can be expedited and the suffering of their parents can be lessened,” she said.

On July 14, Abdullah clashed with police personnel while trying to gain entry into Mazaar-e-Shuhada, the Martyrs Graveyard, in Srinagar where he and other ruling party leaders offered prayers at the graves of Kashmiri civilians killed by the Dogra army in 1931.

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