Banning Jamaat-e-Islami can have ‘dangerous ramifications’, says Mehbooba Mufti

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday said that Jamaat-e-Islami is an ideology and warned that banning it will have ‘dangerous ramifications’. "You cannot imprison an ideology or an idea. There are thousands of Kashmiris in villages and cities associated with the Jamaat. It is s socio-religious organisation,” said PDP chief.

Mufti said that it is unfortunate that government is sealing properties of Jamaat leaders, including schools run by the organisation.

“It is unfortunate as these schools were providing education to the poorest of poor. Their students are meritorious. Where will all these students go after their schools have been banned. They are playing with our future and this is very wrong. They should rather ban (RSS) shakhas where swords are displayed. No Jamaati carries a sword," she said.

Slamming PM Modi-led government at the centre for its decision to ban Jamaat-e-Islami, Mufti said that the BJP is converting Jammu and Kashmir into an open prison. She also accused the government of taking any actions against those persons responsible for incidents of lynching in the country.

"You have Shiv Sena, Jan Sangh, RSS in the country who have lynched people on the basis of eating a type of meat, but there was no action. However, an organisation which has been helping the poor and running schools has been banned and its activists put in jails. We will not allow this. Its consequences will be dangerous," she said.

"We had not allowed the BJP to do whatever it is doing now (during the PDP-BJP coalition), but unfortunately there is no one to stop them (now). When a Kashmiri is beaten, people applaud and become happy," Mufti said adding that she never got any credible intelligence reports about the links of Jamaat workers with the terrorists when she was Chief Minister of the state during the PDP-BJP coalition.

Condemning the recent NIA raids on moderate Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq's properties, Mehbooba said the Centre wants every Kashmiri to pay for "a thought which is in his mind".