A man of perseverance and great survivor, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed has an astute political sense honed by decades of experience in Kashmir politics that has stood him in good stead in crafting a delicate alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party to return as chief minister for the second time.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday said that the 'unelected nominees of New Delhi locked up the elected representatives' of the people of Jammu and Kashmir after prominent leaders from ruling and opposition parties were not allowed to leave their houses to prevent them from visiting the graveyard of 1931 martyrs in Srinagar.
The alleged torture of five civilians by Army personnel in Kishtwar has triggered angry reactions from various political parties in Jammu and Kashmir, notably from Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who has demanded a transparent investigation and court martial for those found guilty.
'Often people outside paint a wrong picture of us of Kashmiris. We are not like that. We are cool and bindaas,' said the lady, a teacher, caressing my cheeks in the pressing crowds.
Mufti said relation of J&K with India will end if the terms and conditions of the state's accession to the Union were changed.
President of the People's Democratic Party Mehbooba Mufti said that the was disappointed with the report submitted by the three interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir to Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday condoled the death of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and said his contribution to public service will always be remembered.
The People's Democratic Party and the National Conference -- the two Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners in Jammu and Kashmir -- will be taking on each other on the three Lok Sabha seats in the valley.
Questioning Pakistan's stand on Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Friday asked whether the militant attack on the BSF convoy in Bijbehara was the way to show its love for the people.
From royalty to a tea vendor-turned-politician's wife and from a first lady to a Bengali actress, the 18 Muslim women who treaded the hallowed corridors of power in the Lok Sabha are an eclectic mix, with each of them having an interesting backstory, but one common thread -- their path to power was always strewn with struggle and hurdles.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, was conspicuous by her absence at the event, which was attended by tens of thousands of people as the Congress sought to promote opposition unity.
The challenges will be the real test of Mehbooba's leadership qualities and political acumen as she does not enjoy her father's stature and vast political experience.
'The Congress backstabbed us and the BJP frontstabbed us.' 'This is the only difference between the two parties.'
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said on Sunday the dialogue process initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Jammu and Kashmir's mainstream leadership can gain credibility by ending what she called an 'era of oppression and suppression' in the union territory and understanding that a dissenting voice is not a criminal act.
The chief minister invoked the legacy of former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, by sending a strong message of peace and reconciliation to both India and Pakistan.
She said the encounter in Jammu's Sidhra area in the morning, where four terrorists were killed, belied the government claims of uprooting terrorism in J and K.
Mufti, who reached New Delhi on Monday for talks with the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership, has called for a legislature party meeting on March 24.
She also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre of "murdering the democracy" in the name of polls.
The PDP chief visited New Delhi on Monday and has reportedly called a meeting of party legislators to brief them about her talks with BJP leaders.
Kashmiris across the region condemned the terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 people, mostly tourists, with widespread protests and a shutdown in Srinagar and other parts of the valley. The attack was seen as an assault on the foundation of Kashmir's economy, with residents highlighting the importance of tourism to the region's livelihood. Protests were held in various districts, including Srinagar, Kulgam, Handwara, and Ramban, with residents united in their condemnation of the violence and calling for an end to terrorism.
While visiting the injured in a hospital in Anantnag on Monday, she said the head of every Kashmiri hangs in shame over the incident.
'I've been illegally detained yet again. Since two days, J-K admin has refused to allow me to visit @parawahid's family in Pulwama. BJP Ministers and their puppets are allowed to move around in every corner of Kashmir but security is a problem only in my case,' Mufti tweeted in English and Urdu.
60-year-old Mehbooba Mufti had been under preventive detention since August 5 last year, when the Centre announced abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution granting a special status and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two union territories -- Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.
'Right now, we have no relationship with Pakistan. And the relationship with China is not great.'
Children have to go to schools, study and come out as doctors, dental surgeons, engineers, teachers, Muft said.
After meeting J&K Governor NN Vohra to stake a claim to form a new government in the state, PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday thanked the BJP for extending unconditional support.
IAS officer-turned-politician Shah Faesal and two Peoples Democratic Party members, including the maternal uncle of former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, who were released from detention under the Public Safety Act earlier this week have been "informally" told not to move out of their houses, informed sources said.
'I am committing suicide because I was subject to torture and humiliation in the police station.'
Amid suspense over government formation, late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's family has vacated the chief minister's official bungalow in Jammu, the winter capital of the state, leading to questions as to what his daughter and expected successor Mehbooba Mufti could be up to.
Mehbooba Mufti is running an alliance that is unnatural -- and one she instinctively militates against. She needs to be responsible in what she says and does -- and her time starts now, says Aditi Phadnis.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti will on Wednesday file her nomination papers from the Anantnag assembly segment which fell vacant on the demise of her father and chief minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
'Her tussle is a different ballgame from what it was when Farooq Abdullah and Rajiv Gandhi were the main players at the two ends of the power game.' 'The shadow of the party in power in New Delhi over J&K affairs in 1987 was not as menacing as it is in 2018,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the doyen of Kashmir commentators.
Tral, the former hotbed of terrorism, rocks to the music of democracy.
Mehbooba said Article 370 was a bridge between the Union and the state.
In the words of a senior PDP leader, the party, in order to continue its alliance with the BJP, only needs 'a long spoon to sup with the devil.'
Two soldiers who were critically wounded in Thursday's terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Gulmarg succumbed to their injuries, raising the death toll in the ambush to four.
She said and reasoned that the PDP-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in the state needed a leader of the stature of Sayeed to run it.
The fate of the BJP-PDP alliance may be known on Monday as PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti talks tough.
Delhi is set to get its third woman chief minister, after Congress' Sheila Dikshit and Bharatiya Janata Party's Sushma Swaraj, as Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi has been chosen to succeed Arvind Kejriwal.
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