Detention of political leaders an Orwellian nightmare: Iltija

SRINAGAR: A new tweet appeared on PDP president Mehbooba Mufti’s Twitter handle on Wednesday. The tweet said that the six-month detention of the political leadership in Kashmir had been an Orwellian nightmare.

Mehbooba’s daughter Iltija Mufti has been handling her mother’s Twitter account following the detention of the former chief minister in the wake of abrogation of Article 370 on August 5 last year.

“Exactly 6 months ago, I watched helplessly as officers took my mother away. Days have turned into weeks & weeks into months. Yet, political leadership in Kashmir remains under illegal detention. It’s been an Orwellian nightmare to be up against a government muzzling its own people,” Iltija tweeted from her mother’s handle.

She said the idea of India was under assault and staying quiet was criminal complicity. “Economic & psychological cost of this crisis has debilitated J&K.

Yet nothing has changed. For many fellow Indians, this might be comeuppance for Kashmiris. But truth is that idea of India is under assault. And staying quiet is criminal complicity,” she wrote.

Iltija vowed to continue to speak up as an ‘anguished’ Kashmiri: “I’ll continue fighting & speaking up as an anguished Kashmiri. And as a daughter, every day until my mother comes home. What makes India great is its diversity, values of equality & brotherhood. I draw strength in knowing that a mass movement has been ignited to protect these values,” she tweeted.

Mainstream politicians, activists and trade leaders were kept under preventive detention after August 5 last year when the Centre withdrew the special status of the erstwhile state of J&K and bifurcated it into UTs. Since then many among them have been released on different occasions. Among the prominent leaders who are still under detention are NC leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti.