Srinagar: Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday said that the people are the owners of the land here and cannot be labelled as encroachers. She urged mohalla committees and panchayats to take control of the state land, common lands and grazing lands across the union territory.

The People’s Democratic Party chief alluding to the BJP said that they first called people here ‘anti-national’ and now they label people as ‘illegal encroachers.’ “Mohalla committees and panchayats and other such platforms should take control of the land. There is no state in place right now. We are a stateless people and thus people are the owners of land and they should take custody of the land. This is our land and people should take control of this land be it stateland, grazing land, common land or custodian land,” said Mufti.

She alleged that the ‘demolition drive’ is a tactical diversion of the BJP to shift attention from Adani, who she accused of ‘looting and scamming’ the country and the banks, besides putting the economy of the country at stake. “They don’t act against the real illegal encroacher like Adani, they are not able to take action against him instead they will target poor people,” she said. Mufti accused the central government of executing the demolition selectively by targeting 99 percent muslims in Delhi and Jammu and one percent people from other communities which she called a ‘balancing act.’

“People of J&K are harassed so that they don’t have time to think of anything else, but they should understand that there is a sentiment in J&K who want the resolution of the issue and want to get equal rights in this country like partners and not to live like slaves,” said Mufti, adding, “You cannot put this sentiment in jail like thousands of youth languishing in jail outside J&K who are fed bread and salt.” The PDP chief said that in BJP’s Naya Kashmir, “people are fired from jobs and jailed, journalists are arrested and now our homes and businesses are being demolished. What bigger success could the BJP achieve here? They are against muslims.” She lamented that there is no supremacy of the constitution here. “It’s hooliganism…Even banks have started sending notices regarding mortgaged properties to people when demolition of shops and houses are already going on,” she said.

On the recent Income Tax survey of the BBC office in Delhi, Mufti said that this action exposes the BJP’s claims of ‘Vishwa Guru’ and negatively impacts the image of the country across the world. “BBC is a credible news agency…raiding its office, especially after they made a documentary on Gujarat riots is not good….These actions bruise the image and credibility of the country across the world.”

She lamented that on one hand the BJP talks about leading the G-20 and on the other hand incidents like the raid on BBC and demolitions of the homes and shops of the poor, put the country in bad light. “Opposition voices here be that of journalists, politicians or activists were stifled. There is an environment of hooliganism which started from J&K where some journalists are in jail –unfortunately news agencies national and international remained mum at that time–and now this is being repeated across the country,” she said.

On PDP’s decision to form a coalition government with the BJP in 2015 Mufti said that her father Mufti Sayed took the step to save the people from the situation they are currently facing. “Till we were in government we didn’t allow the BJP to touch Article 370 and people here. The moment the government fell, they destroyed this place. But my people have every right to criticise me. I am not BJP who will stifle people and lock their tongues,” said Mufti.