National Conference on Monday lashed out at the State Government for "overseeing" a wave of mass repression and indiscriminate arrests in Kupwara District and said youth were being booked in false cases on political grounds at the behest of PDP leaders.In a statement issued from Party Headquarters in Srinagar, National Conference Senior Vice President and Former Minister Chaudhary Mohammad Ramzan said Kupwara District was reeling under a ruthless mass crackdown where people were being targeted for their political affiliations under the fig-leaf of suppressing the current agitation. “There have been a couple of instances where even people who work and live abroad have been booked under false cases despite the fact that they haven’t been in the country for more than a year. In some affidavits and documents seeking the imposition of Public Safety Act, the administration has listed being a worker of National Conference as an apparently cognizable offence that justifies arrest and prosecution.
Youth are being arrested at the behest of local PDP leaders and this is adding to the alienation on the ground”, Chaudhary Mohammad Ramzan added.The NC Senior Vice President said reports of houses being ransacked, fodder being destroyed and crops being burnt indicated a clear and deliberate crackdown by the Government on civilians in the State.“There is a concerted attempt to humiliate the people and persecute them into political submission. The PDP-BJP Government of Mehbooba Mufti has crossed all limits of repression and ruthlessness and has pushed the youth of the State farther from the goal of reconciliation and peace. Kupwara District has been handed over to the Police and it seems only PDP workers are immune from this perverse persecution. When PDP leaders and workers start deciding who deserves a PSA based on the individuals political affiliations, one can only rue the future of the State under the current dispensation”, the NC Senior Vice President said in the statement. (CNS)