Will lift ban on JKLF, Jamaat-e-Islami if voted to power, says Mehbooba Mufti

Former chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said she would lift the ban on Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) if voted to power. Banning organisations, like the JKLF and the JeI, would have far reaching consequences and such measures would increase the alienation and frustration of the people, she said.

Following the Pulwama attack, the Central government declared the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) in Jammu and Kashmir as an 'unlawful association' under Section 3 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 for alleged anti-national and subversive activities. The ban was ordered by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) after a high-level meeting on national security, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On February 14, at least 42 CRPF personnel were killed in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district when a Jaish suicide bomber rammed a vehicle carrying over 30 kg of explosives into their bus in Pulwama district that also left many critically wounded.

More than 2,500 Central Reserve Police Force personnel, many of them returning from leave to rejoin duty in the Valley, were travelling in the convoy of 78 vehicles when they were ambushed on the Srinagar-Jammu highway at Latoomode in Awantipora in south Kashmir.

"In a democracy, ideas are allowed to flourish and not choked. By taking such undemocratic, unconstitutional and unnatural measures, the government is trying to show its electorate how tough it is against the Muslims and against Jammu and Kashmir.

"If our party is voted to power, we will make efforts to undo the BJP's wrongs and lift the ban imposed on the JeI and the JKLF," Mehbooba Mufti said.

On February 22, the state police detained over 100 of Jamaat's cadres, including its chief Abdul Hamid Fayaz. Detainees include Advocate Zahid Ali (spokesperson), Ghulam Qadir Lone (former secretary general), Abdur Rouf (Ameer Zila Islamabad), Mudasir Ahmad (Ameer Tehsil Pahalgam), Abdul Salam, Bakhtawar Ahmad, Mohammad Hayat (Tral), Bilal Ahmad, Ghulam Mohammad Dar, and others.