PDP walkout in J&K Assembly over SHO’s transfer

Opposition PDP MLAs stage walkout in the Legislative Assembly in Jammu on Wednesday against the transfer of SHO Shaheed Gunj. Photo: Nissar Ahmad

Mehbooba Mufti's Peoples Democratic Party staged a protest as all of its MLAs walked out of the Assembly on Wednesday over the Omar Abdullah government's order of the transfer of a Station House Officer investigating the charge of sexual assault against the Congress legislator and the former Health Minister Shabir Khan.

Ms Mufti and other members of her party got up at the beginning of the Question Hour and pressed to know why the government on Tuesday had shifted Inspector Ghulam Mohiuddin from Shaheed Gunj police station. Mr Mohiuddin was the I.O. in the FIR filed against the Congress MLA Shabir Khan on February 6.

Mr Khan was forced to resign following the registration of FIR of sexual assault against him. He remained into the hiding until a judge of the Jammu & Kashmir granted him interim bail which was subsequently confirmed as the judge endorsed that the accused was cooperating with the police.

As the I.O. granted him permission, the MLA has begun attending the current session of the legislature here since Monday.

Ms Mufti alleged the SHO's transfer was the result of the “pressure from the top”. She pointed out that none of the police and security forces officials involved in human rights abuse had ever been shifted even as the opposition had demanded their shifting from particular postings.

Nobody from the treasury benches responded to Ms Mufti and other MLAs including the CPI(M) member Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami and independent MLAs Hakeem Yasin and Engineer Rasheed who also raked up the matter and demanded fair investigation into the criminal case against the Congress MLA.

Minutes after the PDP MLAs returned, Minister of State for Home Sajjad Ahmed Kichloo clarified that the SHO'S transfer was a “routine administrative matter” as many officials had been shifted. “This transfer has got nothing to do with politics. There's no question of pressure”, he asserted.

Later, the PDP member Syed Bashir was removed from the House on Speaker Mubarak Gul's order when he was agitating the matter of ration to the Jagti migrant colony in Jammu alleging that the displaced Kashmiri Pandits had not received any food supplies ahead of their festival of Maha Shivaratri. When his colleagues backed Mr Bashir, they were all removed. On the exit, Mr Bashir repeatedly slapped a watch and ward official Mr Kamran.