Srinagar, July 16 (UNI) Amid a spurt in terror attacks in the Jammu region, former Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday demanded the immediate sacking of Jammu and Kashmir police chief R R Swani.
She said it was unfortunate that there was no accountability over the killing of soldiers in the Jammu region.
“…There is no accountability. By now the heads should have rolled. The Director General of Police should have been sacked. Almost 50 soldiers have lost their lives in the last 32 months,” Mufti said while addressing a press conference in Srinagar.
There has been a spree of attacks on security forces in Jammu in the recent past and the latest one came on Monday evening which left four army personnel, including an officer, dead in Doda district’s Desa forests in Jammu.
Mufti levelled serious charges against the DGP Swani saying he was busy in “fixing things politically”.
“The present DGP is more busy with fixing things politically. His job is how to break the people of PDP and how to harass people and journalists… The passports and verifications have been weaponized. They are finding ways to impose UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act) on people... We don't need a fixer here, we need a DGP. We have had DGPs from outside (other states) before and they have worked very well. No one has worked on such lines like things are being done now," she said, accusing him of “treating Kashmiris as Pakistanis".
Mufti's outburst came a day after DGP Swain, while speaking at a function at Indian Institute of Management Jammu, blamed regional parties for Pakistan’s ‘successful’ infiltration into the Kashmiri civil society.
“There is ample evidence to show that many had mastered the art of running with the hare and hunting with the hound, which left both the common man and the security forces bewildered, frightened, and confused,” he said on Monday.
Mufti hit back at DGP saying he wants to “hide his failures and hide behind the mainstream and regional political parties.”
She said it was not the job of politicians to stop infiltration.
"While there is infiltration from Pakistan, what is the DGP doing? Is it my job or Omar Abdullah’s job to stop the infiltration? Who is at the borders? Who has to deal with the situation?” she asked.
"Soldiers come to Kashmir for their duty but go back in coffins. Who is responsible for this … They rather blame the mainstream parties," PDP chief Mufti said.
Mufti said who had stopped the DGP from acting against the militants, especially as the Centre has been directly ruling Jammu and Kashmir for the last six years.
Mufti appealed to the Home Minister and the Defence Minister to take note of the terror attacks and casualties in Jammu and Kashmir, and fix accountability.
“The maximum casualties have been reported since the present DGP took over," Mufti claimed.
Apart from Mufti, People’s Conference chief Sajad Lone also strongly contended the recent comments made by the DGP, calling them inappropriate and intolerable in any functioning democracy.
In a social media post, Lone stated that "The comments made by the DG J&K Police pertaining to mainstream parties are inappropriate, to say the least."
Lone criticized the DGP's remarks, stating that even in a basic, rudimentary functioning democracy such utterances by a serving police officer would not have been tolerated.
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