BJP using governor Malik to fulfil agenda: Mehbooba Mufti

SRINAGAR: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and president of Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday accused the government at the Centre of making attempting to “disempower” the Muslims of the state and said that it seems that governor Satya Pal Malik is peddling the BJP agenda.

“The entire country and the government and also the governor should know that Jammu and Kashmir is a Muslim-majority state. The government in particular should respect the sentiments of the larger community of the state as well as those of the minorities. Any move aimed at alienating the majority community will have grave consequences,” she said at a press conference here.

Accusing the government of taking steps which are detrimental to the interests of the state and its people, she claimed, “The agenda which I (as chief minister) didn’t allow BJP to implement here in J&K, that agenda is being implemented now through governor”. She warned, “The government of India is playing with fire.” “There is a notion that they want to disempower the Muslims of the state,” she added.

Referring to the creation of separate administrative and revenue division of Ladakh headquartered at Leh and the resentment being shown by the people of Kargil to the “discriminatory” move of the governor’s administration, the PDP leader said that she would like to warn the incumbent government “not to sow seeds of discord and create new fault lines in the already disturbed state”.