india

Updated: Aug 08, 2019 07:26 IST

“The government wants to break my mother’s spirit and want her to fall in line but they don’t know that she is a strong woman,” Sana Iltija Javed, daughter of former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said.

Sana, who has limited access to the outside world, was with Mufti when she (the latter) was arrested and taken away from her residence. Prior to that Mufti was under house arrest for a day.

“I’ve sent several messages to the police asking for permission to meet my mother but they are insecure about letting a daughter meet her mother. What are they scared of? I think they are just petrified about the backlash to a step (revocation of Article 370) they know is unconstitutional.”

Sana too has been confined to her home in Srinagar, Fairview. “Nobody is being allowed to even meet me. I am just an ordinary Kashmiri, an Indian citizen. Why are they scared of a young woman who has nothing to do with politics? Do we have no rights and liberties?” she asked in one of several voice messages she exchanged with Hindustan Times.

“I won’t be surprised if they arrest me too. The government does not want the country or the international community to see how we have been stripped of our rights and our dignity in the blink of an eye,” she said.

Kashmir has been under strict curfew since the midnight of August 4, when mainstream leaders Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah were placed under house arrest and all communications blocked.

The following morning, home minister Amit Shah announced the dramatic revocation of Article 370 and tabled the Reorganisation Bill that converted the former state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories.