Will revoke ban on JKLF, JeI if PDP comes to power: Mehbooba

Srinagar: Reiterating that muscular policies will only prove counterproductive in tackling the present crises in Jammu and Kashmir, former Chief Minister and President Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Mehbooba Mufti said on Tuesday that if her party comes to power, it will scrap the ban imposed by the government on JKLF and Jamaat-e-Islami.

Addressing the workers convention in north Kashmir’s Baramulla, Mehbooba said that banning organisations like JeI and JKLF will have far reaching consequences and such measures only increase the level of alienation and frustration among the people.

She said that PDP has a clear stand that ideas cannot be chained, banned or killed. “In democracy, ideas are allowed to flourish and not choked. By taking such undemocratic, unconstitutional and unnatural measures, the government in actual is trying to show its electorate how tough it is against the Muslims and against Jammu and Kashmir,” Mehbooba said in her address while assuring that if PDP comes to power, it will make strenuous efforts to undo the BJP’s wrongs and revoke the ban imposed on Jamaat-e-Islami and JKLF.

She said that it has been the prime agenda of the PDP that the muscular approach will not take the state anywhere as this has been tried for many decades and hasn’t yielded any positive outcome. She said that it is unfortunate that some people still believe in the efficacy of these methods and are trying to repeat the old mistakes which will be meaningless and will prove counterproductive.