The Peoples Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, forming the ruling alliance in Jammu and Kashmir, are again in conflict over the demand for the arrest of radical separatist leader Asiya Andrabi.
On Pakistan’s Independence Day on August 14, Ms. Andrabi not only unfurled the Pakistani flag at her residence in Srinagar but also addressed, over the phone, a Lahore rally organised by the 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed. She spoke about the “revival of Pakistan” on the lines of pan-Islamism. “I also said Kashmir is nothing without the idea of Pakistan,” Ms. Andrabi, who is fleeing the police, told The Hindu on the phone.
While the PDP seems unmoved by Ms. Andrabi’s act, BJP State unit president Jugal Kishore has dubbed it “treason”. PDP spokesperson Mehboob Beg brushed aside the BJP demand for detaining Ms. Andrabi, saying “she publicises her acts by provoking the State”.
BJP and PDP divided over issue
“What she does is gather 40-50 women and upload provocative videos on her own and that means nothing in Kashmir,” PDP spokesperson Mehboob Beg said. “And this is not the whole story. We had a gathering of 15,000 people on Independence Day, but unfortunately no one noticed that. They were all Kashmiris celebrating Indian freedom and they were in a bigger number than a handful of women doing something somewhere in some room.”
Expressing his displeasure over the conduct of its coalition partner, Mr. Beg said the BJP leaders should cut out all suspicion and start to understand the region by working with the PDP.
“I request the BJP leaders to stop giving ultranationalist certificates to people,” he said.
“This is a big country and we both [BJP-PDP] have to fight these things politically.”
“The government has not passed the order to arrest Ms. Andrabi,” a senior police officer in Srinagar told The Hindu.
“She is absconding, but our police party has cordoned her house.”
BJP spokesperson in Kashmir Khalid Jehangir reiterated the demand made by Mr. Kishore to arrest Ms. Andrabi.
“She [Ms. Andrabi] has always been a foot soldier of terror groups,” Mr. Jehangir said. “We want her to be in jail.”
