Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday accused Governor Satya Pal Malik of “implementing BJP’s agenda of disempowering Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir and breaking the Muslim-majority character of the state”.
“I want to tell Governor sahab and central government that you are playing with fire by creating divisions among regions and people,” Mehbooba told a press conference here, referring to the recent decision of the governor’s administration to make Leh as headquarters of the newly-created Ladakh division, and ignoring demands for separate divisions for Pir Panjal and Chenab Valley regions in Jammu.
She said “some of the recent decisions” implemented by the government of India through the governor were “anti-people and against the sentiment of people”.
The central government must realise that J&K is a Muslim-majority state and any decision should be implemented after taking care of sentiments of people of both the “larger community and minor community”, she said.
Referring to the demand of Kargil residents for a rotational headquarters between Kargil and Leh, Mehbooba said an agitation was underway in Kargil in support of the demand.
She said protests were also going on in Pir Panjal for division status.
“We had warned the government that any selective decision will have a serious fallout,” said Mehbooba.
“But they not only created a division selectively but have also discriminated against Pir Panjal and Chenab Valley.”
Mehbooba said Kargil was nearer to Srinagar than Leh.
“It seems that there is a hidden hand of the central government behind this decision (granting headquarters status to Leh),” she said.
Recalling her tenure as chief minister of the PDP-BJP coalition government, Mehbooba said she didn’t “allow the BJP to implement its agenda in Kashmir”.
“It seems they are implementing this agenda through governor sahab now,” said Mehbooba.
Demanding headquarters on a rotation basis between Leh and Kargil and the division status for Pir Panjal and Chenab valley, Mehbooba warned of agitation in the regions.
“This way you are giving a sense that there is a hidden hand working behind for disempowering Muslims of J&K besides creating divisions among them. You (Government of India) want to divide them into Sunni and Shia and Gujjar and Bakerwal and you want to break Muslim majority character of the state,” she said.
The former chief minister appreciated people of Sikh community and others for providing food to the stranded Kashmiri passengers in Jammu.
She also hailed people of Qazigund in Anantnag district for providing food to stranded passengers.
“But the state government failed to perform its job and come to the rescue of passengers,” she said, and demanded that Kashmir-bound passengers still stranded in Jammu should be airlifted.
Mehbooba expressed anguish over interrupted power supply to Chenab Valley for past more than a week.
“The region which supplies electricity to the entire country has been reeling under darkness for almost 10 days. The authorities should ensure immediate restoration of power supply to the region,” she said.