KASHMIR LIFE (KL): Recently, the Government of India reached out to Jammu and Kashmir’s politicians including you for the first time since August 5. Was the all-party meeting fruitful?
MEHBOOBA MUFTI (MM): This is a question that only the Government of India can answer. There are various confidence building measures which can be initiated to provide some kind of relief to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The process can begin by releasing political prisoners along with lifting the siege that has been imposed since 2019. The suffocating atmosphere of suppression and repression needs to be ended. It is now up to the Government of India to walk the talk.
KL: You talked about the need for Confidence Building Measures (CBM) before the meet. Has there been any delivery on that front?
MM: Ideally, the Government of India should have released some political prisoners and initiated some other confidence building measures even before the meeting was organised. It would have sent a positive signal to the people here. But had we insisted on that then we may have been dubbed as the spoilers.
KL: Was the release of your two party colleagues a part of CBMs?
MM: Both Naeem Akhtar and Sartaj Madani were booked under section 107 and detained illegally since December 2020. As per section 107, a person can be detained only for a maximum of six months. The detention of the two leaders in question was ending in June 2021 under section 107. If the government had to continue their detention any further then they would require booking them under the Public Safety Act. So I am assuming that they were released as a matter of right and not favour. Although it would have been good to see the release of some political prisoners as a goodwill gesture before the all-party meeting.
This story is from the July 10, 2021 edition of Kashmir Life.
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This story is from the July 10, 2021 edition of Kashmir Life.
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