BJP running country on communal agenda: Mufti

Srinagar, May 17: Accusing the BJP of running the country on communal agenda, former J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday said the party doesn't know the significance of Article 370 as they have “sidelined the Constitution”. Talking to the media persons, Mufti said that the BJP “broke a bridge” by scrapping Article 370 and sidelining “those having faith in the country”. In response to a question on the G-20 event in Srinagar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief said that Jammu and Kashmir is being presented as a “trophy” to showcase normalcy. She alleged that the shopkeepers have been asked to keep their shops open, while schools have been asked to close. “People are being detained and questioned. There are crackdowns and raids by NIA, SIA and SIU-like agencies. Schools have been asked to close for ten days and shopkeepers have been asked to keep their shops open. Everyone is being threatened,” she alleged. She also accused the BJP of promoting the people who spread hatred in society, saying the party wants people to fight and keep hatred on spreading. “The recent Jammu incident is the fallout of the hatred where students were beaten ruthlessly. The BJP wants people to fight with each other. First, it was Kashmir Files and now The Kerala Story,” she said. Mehbooba said that if her party had resources they would have taken up the cases of those detained in and outside Jammu and Kashmir to the Supreme Court. She said their families are “struggling and crying” to meet their loved ones. Mufti said she is not against anyone whether a person is caught in the involvement of the killing of Mirwaiz Moulvi Muhammad Farooq or the Pandit community but questioned, “Why were Kashmiri Pandits, who were living here in the valley for the past 30 years, leaving now”.