PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti questions legality of crackdown on Hurriyat leaders, calls it an 'arbitrary move'

Amid the crackdown in Jammu and Kashmir in which several Jamaat-e-Islami and Hurriyat leaders including JKLF (Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front) chief Yasin Malik have been detained, former J&K chief minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has raised questions against the crackdown and the arrests. Taking to social media, Mehbooba Mufti posted a tweet calling, the crackdown on Hurriyat leaders in the Valley as 'an arbitrary move' which will only "precipitate matters" in the state.

"In the past 24 hours, Hurriyat leaders & workers of Jamaat organisation have been arrested. Fail to understand such an arbitrary move which will only precipitate matters in J&K. Under what legal grounds are their arrests justified? You can imprison a person but not his ideas," Mehbooba Mufti tweeted.

As per agency reports, JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik and over two dozen Jamaat leaders, including its chief Abdul Hamid Fayaz, were detained in a crackdown on Friday night. Yasin Malik was detained from his residence in Srinagar, ahead of the crucial hearing on Article 35A in Supreme Court which is likely to take place on Monday. 

READ: JKLF Chief Yasin Malik Arrested From His J&K Residence In Crackdown On Separatists

Meanwhile, security has beefed up in the state on the orders of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). In a letter dated February 22, MHA ordered an additional 100 companies of paramilitary forces to be deployed to the Kashmir Valley with 'immediate effect' with the number of forces already stationed in the state. The letter was addressed to the Jammu and Kashmir home secretary, the state chief secretary and the director general of Jammu and Kashmir Police.

 The government of Jammu and Kashmir, on February 20, downgraded and withdrew the security of 18 Hurriyat leaders in the state

READ: Security Beefed Up In J&K As MHA Deploys Additional 100 Companies Of Paramilitary Forces With 'immediate Effect'