Iltija Mufti, daughter of former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, has been issued a conditional passport by the passport authorities in Srinagar.
The passport has been issued on the grounds that she would be pursuing her studies abroad. However, against the normal procedure of ten years, her passport is valid for only two years.
On April 6, the government told the High Court that Iltija has been issued a passport and her petition should be dismissed. She said the conditional passport was issued in haste on April 6 as they knew the court would punish them.
"They misled the High Court yesterday. It is clearly written on the passport that it is valid for the UAE only," Iltija said. “I am entitled to the passport as I am a law-abiding citizen of the country,” she added. She accused the CID wing of the police of "criminalizing holding a passport" in J&K.
“The passport issued to me is a conditional passport. Even fugitives are not issued such passports. The passport officer Srinagar is violating the passport rules,” Iltija further said while talking to reporters at the People’s Democratic Party’s head office in Srinagar.
“If you are giving me a conditional passport for two years, you must tell me why you are giving this conditional passport to me,” she said.
“The CID has given an adverse report against me in a sealed cover to the High Court. Why the CID wants their adverse report against me should remain secret and in a sealed cover? I will tell you why they have done it: They don’t have any solid ground to deny me a passport. An abnormal normalcy has been imposed in J&K,” she said.
"I am requesting the Court to look into the matter as it is being misled by the Criminal Investigation Department of the Police,” Iltija said.
“It is not a question of my passport alone. In Jammu and Kashmir, students, political activists, politicians, activists and journalists are suffering as they are being punished in different ways,” she said.
She accused the government of stifling any voice that is critical of it. “The government wants to make an example of the Mufti family,” she said.
She said the government wants to convey that no one should open his or her mouth against injustice and oppression in J&K. “The government wants to pass on a message that if anyone raises voice, either he will be booked under Unlawful Prevention Activities Act (UAPA) or if he happens to be a government employee, his job will be taken away.”
“Fundamental rights of Kashmiris have been taken away. Every day they tell us that the Constitution is being implemented. They are imposing the constitution of the BJP in J&K not the Constitution of India. That is why they have taken all fundamental rights of people away,” she alleged.
She named various activists and journalists, who have been arrested, saying the CID was prosecuting people of Jammu and Kashmir and it has “confined itself to how to impose UAPA, and how to usurp employment.”
She said she would fight her passport case in the High Court. “The right to travel abroad is our fundamental right and no agency can take this right away from us,” she said, adding that she has faith in the High Court.
Two months ago, the daughter of former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, had approached J&K High Court seeking renewal of her passport as it had expired on January 2. Iltija Mufti filed a writ petition before the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir seeking directions to the passport officer Srinagar to issue her passport. In her petition, she had said, the delay in issuing her passport amounts to restraining her from travelling abroad.
