PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti under house arrest? Here's what Jammu and Kashmir Police says

Former Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti claimed that she had been detained.

Hours after PDP president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti claimed that she had been detained, the Kashmir Zone Police on Friday clarified the matter. Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, Kashmir Zone Police said that Mufti is not under house arrest.

The police added that they requested her to postpone the visit to Pulwama due to security reasons. "PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti is not under house arrest. She was requested to postpone her visit to Pulwama purely due to security reasons," tweeted Kashmir Zone Police.

Mufti and her daughter Iltija Friday claimed that they were detained at their residence to prevent them from visiting the house of arrested party leader Waheed Ur Rehman Parra in Pulwama in South Kashmir.

"I've been illegally detained yet again. Since two days, JK admin has refused to allow me to visit Para Wahid's family in Pulwama. BJP Ministers and their puppets are allowed to move around in every corner of Kashmir but security is a problem only in my case," Mufti tweeted in English and Urdu.

"Their cruelty knows no bounds. Waheed was arrested on baseless charges and I am not allowed to even console his family. Even my daughter Iltija has been placed under house arrest because she also wanted to visit Waheed's family," she said.

Parra was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday for allegedly seeking help from Hizbul Mujahideen terror group in seeking their support in the 2019 Parliamentary elections in which Mufti was the PDP candidate. Mufti had sought security clearance for her visit to the residence of Parra at Naira village on Friday to meet his family.

In a communication posted on her official Twitter handle, Additional Director General of Police and Director Special Security Group (SSG) S D Singh sought rescheduling of the proposed visit of the former chief minister to the Naira village on the demand of the Pulwama district police.

The Pulwama Police sought the rescheduling of her programme citing that neither an anti-sabotage check nor a proper route sanitisation had been done as the entire manpower was committed for other election-related operation duties.

Reacting to the alleged detention, National Conference (NC) vice president Omar Abdullah said personal liberty is treated as a favour by the government, giving and withdrawing it at will, with no interference from the judiciary.

Jammu and Kashmir is all set for the maiden District Development Council (DDC) polls and by-elections to the panchayat and urban local bodies, scheduled to be held in eight phases beginning November 28.

Abdullah accused the Jammu and Kashmir administration of treating personal liberty as a favour. "Parking a truck in front of our gates is now the standard operating procedure for this admin. They did the same to my father recently to stop him from praying. Personal liberty is treated as a favour by the govt, to give & withdraw at will, with no interference from the judiciary," Omar Abdullah wrote on Twitter.

His father and NC president Farooq Abdullah was on October 30 prevented from leaving his residence to offer prayers at Hazratbal shrine on the occasion of Eid-Milad-un-Nabi.