Mehbooba says under house arrest, 'unable to express sympathy with Pandit community'

"Wanted to visit Budgam to express my solidarity with Kashmiri pandits protesting against GOIs failure to protect them. Have been put under house arrest as the fact that Kashmiri Muslims & Pandits empathise with each other’s pain doesn’t fit into their vicious communal narrative, Mehbooba wrote in a tweet.

Srinagar: Former J&K chief minister and PDP president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti Friday claimed that she was kept under house arrest to prevent her from expressing sympathy with the Pandit community in Budgam protesting against the killing of their fellow community member.

"Wanted to visit Budgam to express my solidarity with Kashmiri pandits protesting against GOIs failure to protect them. Have been put under house arrest as the fact that Kashmiri Muslims & Pandits empathize with each other’s pain doesn’t fit into their vicious communal narrative, Mehbooba wrote in a tweet. In a separate tweet, she appealed to the people of J&K to "stand together in these turbulent times so that GOI doesn’t use this tragic incident to further malign Muslims across the country".

In a video statement, Mehbooba said, “situation is going from bad to worse while Centre is paying communal politics in the country”. “They are pitting religions against each other. But it is imperative for the people in J&K to live with communal harmony and send a message for the country so that Muslims are not maligned,” she said.

Hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits staged a protest on Friday against the killing of Rahul Bhat, a revenue official, who was shot dead by suspected militants inside his office at Chadoora in central Kashmir's Budgam district on Thursday.