'What Israel does in Palestine...': Mehbooba on Kashmir 'bulldozer drive'

Former J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has slammed the central government for destroying people's homes in Jammu and Kashmir in the name of an 'anti-encroachment drive.' She was addressing the media in the national capital, reports ETV Bharat's Saurabh Sharma.

New Delhi:Launching a scathing attack on the BJP, former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti said that the Centre gave 45,000 hectares of land to a "conman" while people of the J&K are being "thrown out of their homes".

"Now if you go to Kashmir, it will look like Afghanistan because bulldozers are run there. People are being evicted from their land in the name of encroachment. The government portrays Kashmiris in a bad light in order to gain electoral profit. What Israel does to Palestine, the same is now being done in Kashmir by the government", she said.

Mehbooba, whose party PDP was a BJP ally before 2019, was speaking in New Delhi against the backdrop of a demolition drive carried out by the J&K administration. The authorities are retrieving the state land, which they claim has been illegally occupied by influential people, a claim contested by the local leaders and the people of the Union Territory.

Urging the opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Nitish Kumar, Mamta Banerjee, Mayawati, and others, Mehbooba appealed to them to raise voices in support of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, who allegedly are suffering at the hands of the government. She also said that while the government is carrying out this demolition drive in the valley in the name of an anti-encroachment drive, "China has occupied more than 2,000 square kilometers of land and the government does not speak a word on it."

"By removing Article 370, our identity and employment have all ended. J&K was such a state where people did not sleep on the streets, and everyone had a roof over their heads, but nowadays everything is being destroyed in the name of encroachment drives. What is happening now in Jammu and Kashmir is extreme," she said.

Accusing the Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju for his comments on Judiciary and the collegium system, Mehbooba said, "What we are witnessing at the moment is extreme. The comments by the Law Minister are a clear example." She further accused the BJP of using its "brute majority to break the constitution of this country" and further added that "One Nation, One Constitution, One Religion and One Language, a slogan propagated by BJP is now being talked about in the country."

While she was addressing the press in the national capital, former CM of J&K Omar Abdullah addressed the media in Srinagar where he too accused the LG Manoj Sinha-led administration of creating "lawlessness" in the Union Territory in the garb of 'removing encroachment'.