Srinagar, August 25, 2025 : PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Monday appealed to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to lead an all-party delegation to jails across the country where Kashmiri prisoners are lodged, to assess their condition.
Speaking on the sidelines of a protest organised by her party in Srinagar, Mehbooba said the chief minister should also raise the issue with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
“Omar should take an all-party delegation—we also want to be part of it—to different jails and check the plight of Kashmiri prisoners. If not, he should at least send his ministers,” she said.
The PDP chief stressed that her demand was humanitarian, not political. “We are in opposition and cannot do much, but he can. I swear this is not politics, it is about those in jails,” she added.
Citing cases of senior separatist leaders like Shabir Shah and Jamaat-e-Islami chief who are ailing in custody, Mehbooba said many others are also suffering, with some yet to be convicted. She demanded their transfer to prisons within J&K to ease hardships for families.
Earlier, police stopped a PDP protest march near Sher-e-Kashmir Park, preventing workers from moving ahead. Mehbooba criticised the action, saying, “The way police stopped us today, had they shown the same zeal in arresting those behind the Pahalgam attack, war with Pakistan could have been avoided.”
“This is not a PDP-NC rivalry,” she said. “This is about people, about humanity.”