SRINAGAR, June 30: People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday alleged that party leaders and workers across the Kashmir Valley were placed under house arrest to prevent them from holding a peaceful protest against the outsourcing of government jobs.
In a post on X, Mehbooba accused the National Conference (NC)-led government of adopting a “selective” approach by claiming it has no control over the police when questions of accountability arise, while allegedly coordinating with the police to suppress peaceful protests.
” The NC government repeatedly hides behind the excuse that the Police Department is beyond its control whenever questions of accountability arise.
Yet, whenever young people peacefully raise their voices for justice, be it the rationalisation of reservations or opposing backdoor appointments, the same government functions in complete coordination with the police to crush every democratic expression of dissent,” she said.
She alleged that the government’s “hypocrisy stood fully exposed” as PDP leaders and workers across the Valley were allegedly placed under house arrest to stop them from protesting against the outsourcing of government jobs.
“This selective helplessness exposes their duplicity. Their duplicity is further exposed when departments such as Housing, Revenue and Forest readily enlist police assistance to demolish the homes of poor and vulnerable families in the name of anti-encroachment drives,” the former Chief Minister added.
Earlier in the day, the PDP alleged that its Baramulla district president, Mohammad Rafique Rather, was placed under house arrest ahead of the party’s proposed district-level protest.
According to the party, Rather was prevented from leaving his residence to participate in the demonstration.
The PDP has announced protests at district headquarters across Jammu and Kashmir against what it describes as the government’s outsourcing policy and alleged irregularities in recruitment.
There was no immediate response from the administration or the police to the PDP’s allegations.
The outsourcing issue has emerged as a major political flashpoint between the ruling National Conference and the opposition PDP. While the PDP has accused the government of facilitating outsourcing and “backdoor appointments”, the NC has rejected the allegations, maintaining that the outsourcing mechanism was introduced during the PDP-BJP coalition government from 2015 to 2018.
Both parties have accused each other of promoting irregularities in government recruitment.
