Former Jammu and Kashmirchief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday claimed that the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) wanted to ban Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and crack down on Hurriyatleaders during their coalition government, but she did not allow them to do so.
Addressing aworkers convention in Bandipora, Mufti said: “BJP wanted to crack down onJamaat-e-Islami and ‘suppress’ the separatist leadership through NIA raids.However, our government did not allow the rightwing party to crack down onseparatists.”
Mufti said that theBJP wanted to carry out NIA raids on Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Syed Ali Shah Geelaniand other separatists as well but her government was against any such move.
She said that itwas during the government of National Conference (NC)-Congress in 2019 whenPrevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and NIA spread their “web” in Kashmir.
Mufti said that sheforced BJP to have ceasefire in Kashmir for at least one month but militantsdidn’t respond to the ceasefire.
“Militants were notsupportive when I forced BJP to have ceasefire for a month. I wanted to have adialogue with separatist leaders and even a parliamentary committee visitedKashmir in 2016 but they shut their doors. Dineshwar Sharma was appointed asinterlocutor to have dialogue with the separatist leadership but they didn’tsupport it,” she said.