PDP Workers Detained, Cellular Service Suspended: Mehbooba Mufti's Big Charge Amid J&K Polls

Former J&K CM and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has alleged that her cellphone service was suddenly suspended and her party workers were being detained right before the polls.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief and Lok Sabha candidate from Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat Mehbooba Mufti staged a dharna (protest), alleging that her party's workers and polling agents were being detained by the police. She said that the police had detained them without citing any reason. 

Mehbooba Mufti, while staging the protest in Anantnag, asked: "Why are you [police] harassing my workers? The detention of my party workers started last night. [Atal Bihari] Vajpayeeji used to hold free and fair elections. But now..." reported news agency ANI.

She further said that PDP workers were being locked up everywhere in Anantnag. "The Lieutenant Governor should have told me earlier not to contest the elections… I am also getting complaints of malfunction in the machines," Mufti said.

This comes after Mehbooba had previously written to the Election Commission, alleging the detention of PDP workers and polling agents by the police.

"Many of our PDP polling agents & workers are being detained just before voting. When the families went to the police stations they are being told that it's being done at the behest of SSP Anantnag & DIG South Kashmir. We've written to @ECISVEEP hoping for their timely intervention," Mehbooba had said in a post on X.

The Anantnag police, however, responded saying the detentions were very few. "The detentions were restricted to those with a tainted past and based on credible inputs of potential threats to law & order and security on polling day," the police said in an X post. They said that most of those detained were over-ground workers, a term used to define people who aid militants or terrorists.

Outgoing Calls From My Cellphone Blocked: Mehbooba Mufti

According to news agency PTI, Mehbooba Mufti also alleged a sudden suspension of outgoing calls from her mobile number without any notice. "I have been unable to make any calls since this morning. No justification was provided for this unexpected disruption of services on the day of polling in the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency," Mehbooba was quoted as saying.

Mufti, the last chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, posted on X, highlighting the abrupt suspension of her cellular service just before the polls.

Mufti's Anantnag-Rajouri is among the five constituencies in Jammu & Kashmir going to polls for the first time after the abrogation of Article 370. It is going to polls in the sixth phase of voting on Saturday. In the first two hours, the constituency recorded 8.89% voter turnout.

Mehbooba Mufti ended her protest after police released her detained activists and cast her vote in Bijbehara. She alleged the J&K administration was trying to rig the ongoing polls as in 1987 and do away with the policies of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

(With inputs from PTI.)