Supreme Court allows Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter to meet her in Kashmir

The Supreme Court on Thursday, while hearing a bunch of petitions on Jammu and Kashmir, allowed PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter to meet her mother, who has been in detention with other leaders following the scrapping of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in early August. The court also ordered that CPM leader Yusuf Tarigami be shifted to Delhi’s AIIMS for treatment.

The top court was hearing a bunch of petitions against the arrest of leaders, restrictions on movement and ‘suspension of civil liberty’. Petitions challenging the scrapping of Article 370 in Kashmir are before a constitution bench and will be heard at a later date.

Iltija, daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, had moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to the authorities to allow her to meet her mother.

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The court in its order said, “The state does not intend to prevent the petitioner from coming back to Srinagar and meeting her mother… she may return to Srinagar and be free to meet her mother in private. So far as moving around in other parts of Srinagar is concerned, petitioner may feel free to do so subject to requisite permission of the district authorities.”.

The order on Tarigami came after Communist Party on India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury visited the ailing leader in Kashmir and submitted a report, as asked by the top court. Yechury had filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the detention of Kashmiri politician and the party’s general secretary Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami.

“From you affidavit it seems he need medical assistance. We are inclined to move him to AIIMS,” the court said.

Law student Aleem Syed Mohammed, who had petitioned the Supreme Court seeking information about his family in Kashmir’s Anantnag, had been in the last hearing allowed to visit the Valley and submit a report on return to Delhi. On Thursday, Mohammad submitted an affidavit in a sealed cover saying, “whatever I mention in it may have a bearing on my future. I want to live a quiet and uneventful life,” the student said.

Kashmir has been under a security lockdown with restrictioins on movemenmt and truncated communication facilities since August 5, when Home Minister Amit Shah announced in the Lok Sabha the government’s move to scrap Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and divide the state into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The resolution was passed by both houses of Parliament and okayed by the President on August 6.