Opposition leader found photographed with militants would have been slapped with FIRs, says PDP

If an opposition leader would have been photographed with arrested Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant Talib Hussain, he would have been slapped with FIRs and the BJP "trolls" would have been crying for his blood, the PDP said on Wednesday.

In the party's newsletter released here, the PDP -- headed by Mehbooba Mufti -- took a dig at the BJP and alleged that Hussain, apprehended by villagers in J-K's Reasi district, "happens to be in-charge of BJP IT cell".

Similarly, the man who killed Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur and made a video of the gruesome is also a saffron party worker, it said.

"Both men have been photographed with BJP top leadership including the Home Minister. Could you imagine an opposition leader being photographed with these men? They would have been slapped with multiple FIRs and BJP trolls would have been crying for their blood," the PDP said in the newsletter.

It said while the rest of the country was being "conditioned to living in abject poverty" at the mercy of government handouts, "we are being conditioned through punitive measures to accept the abuse to our rights and dignity".

"Of all the crimes we could commit as Kashmiris, advocating for ourselves carries the greatest punishment. And punished we are through measures like arrests, killings, raids and chance encounters so that we learn to accept abuse and not stand up for ourselves," it said.

Referring to the killing of LeT militant Showkat Sheikh in an encounter in Kupwara, who was first arrested in Shopian, the party said while the ultra was being investigated in police custody there was an encounter in Kupwara and the police claimed he was among the militants killed there.

"For a Kashmiri to walk to his corner shop has become a risky proposition. If he is lucky he will be briefly accosted by military, but there is a good chance he may never make it home and instead make the headlines for being shot in a chance encounter," the newsletter said.

The PDP said Kashmiri people speaking up and advocating for themselves was scarier for the Centre.

"They say you never know who you truly are until your back is against the wall. We cannot stick our head in the sand. Fear is a primal emotion that will keep us stuck and turn us into zombies that do and say exactly what the oppressor wants us to.

"We can't control the situation but we can control how we respond to it by coming together and taking care of each other. In order to fight what you're afraid you must become scarier than what scares you. And what's scarier for GOI but people speaking up and advocating for themselves," the party said.

"We've still got some fight left in us and ultimately, we will prevail. By any means necessary," the newsletter added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)