An Open Letter To Mehbooba Mufti

Mehbooba Ji,

Pardon my impudence

It’s been almost more than 4 months since you took charge as chief minister of this fretful state. To become a Chief Minister of one of the militarised region wasn’t a cup of tea for you, as we all know the obstacles you faced since you lost your father. It was hard for you to adhere with the party which has far different ideology than the party which calls for self-rule, but unfortunately you cobbled the coalition. Since you are on their path, obeying the policies of their party, almost you too helped the tyrant in expanding the oppression and without leaving any stone unturned, you are helping the saffron wave to instigate here. This got cleared to us when you stated that you are ashamed as a Muslim. In the same statement you said “Violence in any form will never be accepted and isn’t part of Islam”. Somehow you were talking of peace which never prevailed since you took charge as Chief Minister to this unfortunate part of the world. Its true violence in any form is unacceptable to any one, whether it be a cleric inside masjid giving sermon or any normal person who is shouting his throat out and yells for Aazadi. But then there comes a question of humanitarian rights which directly or indirectly makes sense of freedom in this disputed portion, which unfortunately has had never been given to the people of Kashmir even promised by UNO. To say “there are some miscreants in Kashmir who incite other people for freedom would be antagonism”.

Rather remembering the promises which your party had committed while during election campaigning, the party succumbed in front of tyrant. I still remember the sloganeering which your followers use to chant while during election campaigning. Even some of your party members said “they want people to vote for PDP to keep BJP away”. They also talked of “how sheikh and his family betrayed people”. But everything miraculously changed when your party denounced the voters who voted to keep BJP away. Since your father paved way for RSS and BJP, the streets of Kashmir witnessed bloodbath.

Chief Minister Saheba,

The paradise which passionate people across the world come to see stands isolated and violent. It’s been 29th day of curfew since this upheaval started, since you started dispersing people with lethal weapons. Have you ever imagined facing such harsh brutality which JKPOLICE and CRPF troopers implement on people? More than 58 people died so far and the score is increasing day by day as this may be the outcome of what you say “maximum restraint”. The raison d’être behind these killing is that you have been made handicapped as the chair which you own has three legs owned by saffron party. The recent statements made by you cleared us everything where this coalition is standing right now. To say situation is under control would be like cracking a joke this time. Do you feel the pain of those young boys and girls who have lost their eye sight? Does u feel the pain of that young boy who is just 8 years old, who almost lost his left eye, is this you call maximum restraint? Are you aware of what people actually demands? Or still you are stuck to the lines that this is back sponsored by Pakistan. Madam this is 2016 not 1990. This caption has become repugnant.

Madam Ji

What you are addressing people? That they pelt stones and your police, CRPF in retaliation will shower bullets and pellets? Did you see writing on our walls? What people are demanding right now? To know what they want, you need to feel the pain which they suffer. I am very much shocked to see how you made U turn in your statements. When 2008, 2010 unrest was on peak, you came out on streets, ragged, screamed even locked the secretariat, roared with your party members that people are being brutally supressed and then killed.

You maimed people, gagged media, banned mobile network and still you are yelling loud for peace. I do not know why you are always crying loudly, in fact I saw you on national media channel and you were shedding crocodile tears. Are you trying to make sense that you endorse people’s movement that makes you cry while seeing them under oppression? In that case I would like to make you aware that you have killed 58 people so far. The current situation clearly insinuates that the situation is not under your control which is why it is drifting away. The use of lethal weapons on people, shooting young and small boys from point blank range, blinding a 100 youths, killing women, I think this is not the manifesto you have put on your website. The CRPF and JKPOLICE have introduced nocturnal raids late night. They are taking the young boys with them and putting them behind bars. I think if you continued these things, then for sure you have to build hundred new jails to keep the young and educated boys inside jails. These things are clearly making sense that your government stands miserable right now. By the way what about your coalition partner, they are totally making different statements or I think you are trying to befool us. A normal person stands surprised, what he would like to call this coalition holy or unholy?

Chief Minister Madam

Through force, you cannot take down people’s movement. In old saying the more you will assert force, the more deadly would be the retaliation. The current situation could be handled only by peace talks. I hope rather behaving like the head of state but as human to understand the pain which has deeply wounded the hearts of people. I hope some sort of sense will prevail.

“When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.”—Nelson Mandela

Yasir Altaf Zargar is a Srinagar based web security analyst. He has been acknowledged and rewarded for contributing to the web security of Google, Yahoo, Hackerone, Microsoft, Nokia, and Oracle. He tweets as @zargaryasir and can be reached at zargaryasir@gmail.com