Mehbooba Mufti addresses people at Rajouri; Met families of victims of Dhangri terror attacks

Hits back on LG’s remarks ‘previous govts provided jobs to militants & their families’

Provide free treatment and govt jobs to injured of Dhangri: Mehbooba

Shyam Sood

Rajouri, Mar 14: During her 3 day visit to the border districts of Rajouri & Poonch, PDP President & former Chief Minister of Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday addressed a public rally at Dak Bungalaow Rajouri.
She also visited Dhangri village and met with the families of 7 persons killed in twin terror attack on January 1&2 in which 7 people, including two minor children, were killed.
While expressing her condolences at the house of Saroj Bala- the mother of Deepak Kumar & Prince Kumar who were killed by the terrorists- & only survivor in the family, Mehbooba Mufti said: “In Kashmir, the administration claims to resolve cases of targeted killings, but in Dhangri incident more than two months have passed, but no progress seems to be made in identifying the culprits despite the case is being investigated by a central agency (NIA).”
The compensation money given to those injured in Dhangri attack has already been spent on ongoing treatment (in most of the cases) and among them, two reportedly have lost their limbs and needs government jobs for their future survival.
Mehbooba Mufti also urged Lt Governor for free medical treatment and government jobs to the injured.
Saroj Bala also narrated the incident to PDP Chief on the spot how her two sons were gunned down by the terrorists before her eyes.
While addressing the people at Dak Bungalow, former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti reiterates party’s stand to continue their fight till the Article 370 and 35 A are not restored and for that she seeks the cooperation of the people of Rajouri-Poonch in their fight.
She lambasted BJP for creating a fear psychosis in the entire country, including J&K, by making random arrests (of opposition leaders) to silence the voice of the opposition parties.
“Political parties preferred to remain silent or spoke half-heartedly what happened to J&K after 2019 (abrogation of Article 370 & 35 A), Mehbooba Mufti said.
“Today when the BJP is trampling democracy by jailing opposition leaders with the help of the central agencies, they have started feeling the heat,” Mehbooba added.
While responding to reporter’s quaries about LG Manoj Sinha’s recent remarks that previous governments of NC, PDP & Congress had provided jobs to terrorists and their family members, PDP President said: “This is not our tradition. Giving jobs to mafia & hooligans might have been a custom in UP from where he belongs.”
Mehbooba Mufti while addressing the people said that after 2019 people are frightened to speak on any issue, including shortage of doctors in the hospitals & inadequate infrastructure, bad condition of the roads, unemployment, etc.
She also elaborated the achievements of PDP government, including the opening of Poonch-Rawlakot (PoJK) route, removal of POTA; BGSB University at Rajouri; the opening of the historical Mughal Road, opening of new colleges in both districts, etc.
“Despite BJP’s claims to create jobs for the youth after the abrogation of Article 370, unemployment is on the rise, inflation has broken the back of people” she said.
Mehbooba Mufti also defended PDP’s 2014 alliance with BJP and said it was a very difficult decision for Mufti Mohammad Sayeed following people’s mandate in Assembly elections to BJP in Jammu.
But we implemented PDP’s agenda and did not allow the BJP to run its agenda and that forced BJP to withdraw the support. After the fall of the PDP-BJP government, BJP abrogated Article 370 and now the people are facing man problems like property tax, demolishing of houses, anti-encroachment drives etc ,” she said.
PDP President said that she wrote a letter to Hurriyat Conference to enter in dialogue with a visiting team of visiting Parliamentarians.
“But they closed their doors for the guests and that sent a wrong message across the country,” said Mehbooba Mufti.
She also spoke on many other issues like regularisation of casual labourers by PDP, slapping of PSA on politicians, including her, in 2019 dubbing them as anti-national and now utilising the same experiment in other parts of the country, jailing political leaders on the false charge of corruption.
She also opposed the property tax and hiring of a previously blacklisted company by the J-K administration to fill vacancies in different government departments and said the youth are the worst sufferers of the policies of the administration.
The PDP chief said from Lt Governor to bureaucrats, everyone has been brought from outside and BJP is claiming to install a chief minister from Jammu.
On the election front, Mehbooba Mufti asked PDP cadre to prepare for forthcoming MC and Panchayat elections.
“The assembly elections in J&K will be held only when the situation was conducive for the BJP. The Election Commission had already said that they were ready for elections in J&K,” she said.