Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter Iltija Javed has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah as well as sending a audio message asking why she has been detained at her home. Her mother was arrested hours before the abolition of Article 370 which declared Jammu and Kashmir as two separate states. Incidentally this is the second voice message that Iltija Javed had sent to Amit Shah.
Iltija Javed has also written to Amit Shah and has said that she has been ‘threatened with dire consequences’ if she speaks to the media again.
As the shutdown in Kashmir enters its 12th day, the top political leaders of the state still are under arrest. Two former Chief Ministers – Mufti Mufti and Omar Abdullah – are among those who have been arrested.
“Today while the rest of the country celebrates India’s Independence Day, Kashmiris have been caged like animals and deprived of basic human rights,” Iltija Javed wrote in her letter to Shah. She said she is not informed when visitors are turned away from the gate and
In the letter, the daughter of Jammu and Kashmir’s former Chief Minister has also asked for an explanation for her alleged detention. She stated that security personnel have cited her media interviews as the reason for her detention. “I’ve been threatened with dire consequences if I speak up again,” Iltija wrote in her letter.
“For the world’s largest democracy, doesn’t a citizen not have a right to speak up in the face of unimaginable repression… It’s a tragic irony that I am being treated like a war criminal for stating the inconvenient truth,” Iltija further wrote in the letter.
In the audio message Iltija said, “I am being treated like a criminal and I am under constant surveillance. I fear for my life along with those Kashmiris who have spoken up.”
In her first audio message last week, Iltija had said that her mother has been kept in confinement without access to lawyers or party workers.
Agencies
