Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], May 29 (ANI): Iltija Mufti, daughter of PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, alleged on Wednesday that scores of party workers who kept the flag of democracy flying here at the time of uncertainty were picked up by police, hours ahead of polling in the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency on May 25.
She said that on the day of polling for the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat, on May 25, Mehbooba Mufti staged a dharna outside the Bijbhera police station.
"Today, an FIR under Section 144 has been filed against Mehbooba Mufti," Iltija Mufti told reporters here with a copy of the FIR in one hand.
"Since the evening of May 24, we started to receive calls that hundreds of our young party workers, like Najmu Saqib, Adil Dukroo, and Junaid from Anantnag, Kulgam, as well as polling agents, were picked up by the police from their bedrooms," she alleged, adding, "Police threatened them to accompany them to the police station."
"It all happened 10-12 hours before the polling. At the same time, cordon and search operations started on the same evening (May 24) in Dachnipora and Vachi. The CASO was carried out at the traditional strongholds of the PDP. Agencies, locals, and the Criminal Investigation Department are aware of the PDP's bastions in South Kashmir."
She also accused the local administration of "abducting" PDP workers. "On the next day, we were told that they were overground workers".
Addressing the reporters, she asked, "How dare you slander our boys? Our PDP workers, our young boys, are the ones who held the Indian flag. They kept the flag of democracy flying in Jammu and Kashmir when people found themselves so despondent. And the level of allienation has increased between the people here vis-a-vis rest of India. How dare you term our boys as OGW's".
Earlier in the day, Mufti took to X, saying, "Amusing to find an FIR filed against me for apparently flouting MCC. This is the price PDP has paid for speaking truth to power. Our protest was against GOI in cahoots with local administration for detaining hundreds of PDP polling agents & workers in the hours leading upto voting. Still not satisfied, the same administration went onto launch Cordon & Search Operations in traditional PDP stronghold areas to terrorise our voters and prevent them from exercising their right to vote. Ulta chor kotwal ko daante".
Mufti is in the electoral fray for the Anantnag-Rajouri seat against National Conference (NC) candidate Mian Altaf Ahmad and Zafar Iqbal Manhas of the Apni Party.
According to the latest figure from the Election Commission, the Anatnag-Rajouri constituency recorded 54.3 per cent voter turnout. The voter turnout in the constituency was 14.3 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Polling for all five seats was held in five phases in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The counting and results would be declared on June 4. (ANI)
