Srinagar, Aug 5: PDP leader Iltija Mufti took out a protest march here on Wednesday on the seventh anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370, and demanded the restoration of the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Iltija, along with party leaders, including MLA Pulwama Waheed Para, and spokesperson Mohit Bhan, took out the protest march at Sonwar here.
Raising slogans demanding the restoration of Article 370, the PDP leaders tried to march towards the Dalgate area, but were stopped by the police.
Speaking to reporters, Iltija said the party wants to protest peacefully.
“This is a very peaceful protest. We don’t want to break any laws here, but you can see how the police handled us yesterday,” she said.
The PDP leader said the party will “fight” for the rights “snatched from us seven years ago”.
“I want to remind the Prime Minister and the Home Minister that we will fight for it. We want to protest peacefully for it. You are snatching even that right from us. The police here are doing real terror,” she said.
Iltija alleged that she was “manhandled” by the police during Tuesday night’s protest.
“Yesterday you saw when we came out, my body is full of bruises even now. How much we were manhandled and misbehaved with, our phones were snatched, despite that even now our workers are sitting in the PDP office and they are peacefully protesting. So we are not doing anything illegal here,” she said.
She said the way Gen-Z “brought down the government to their knees”, “we will compel them the same way”.
“We will make sure that you will have to restore our flag, our law, our constitution, and everything else,” she added.
She also criticised the ruling National Conference, saying the party was “protesting for statehood when they should have been fighting for Jammu and Kashmir’s special status”.
Iltija said the police wasn’t allowing the party activists to protest.
“They are not letting us go anywhere. We never had this much security. You see, the lady officer yesterday, how she manhandled me, everyone has seen it. Even the tourists and Kashmiri people saw it,” she stated.
“So, we are not doing anything illegal. We are fighting, still you see, our party was broken, yet our workers today in Anantnag, Pulwama, Rajouri, Poonch, Srinagar, they are all fighting. We are seeking our rights. We are not asking for anything extra,” she said.
The PDP leader also alleged that the NC was trying to “normalise the whole situation”. (PTI)
