Srinagar: Several political leaders in Jammu and Kashmir, including PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, on Saturday claimed authorities have put them under house arrest to prevent them from visiting the ‘martyrs’ graveyard’ to pay homage to the 22 Kashmiri people killed by the army of a Dogra ruler on this day in 1931.
However, there was no official word on the claims made by the politicians.
Mehbooba, a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, alleged that she was put under “house arrest” at her residence in Khimber in the outskirts of the city.
“The gates of my house have been locked up yet again to prevent me from visiting Mazar e Shuhada – an enduring symbol of Kashmir’s resistance and resilience against authoritarianism, oppression and injustice,” she said in a post on X.
The PDP chief said the “sacrifices of our martyrs is a testament that the spirit of Kashmiri’s cannot be crushed” and added that “today even observing it in remembrance of the protesters martyred on this day has been criminalised”.
“On 5th August, 2019 J&K was dismembered, disempowered and stripped of everything that was sacrosanct for us. They intend to erase each one of our collective memories,” she said referring to the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state of J-K into Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

  Kashmir 370, Mehbooba Mufti

Agencies