An FIR against 10 leaders of Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP has been filed for allegedly flouting COVID-19 guidelines at an event to observe party founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s death anniversary, triggering a political row.
The executive magistrate in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district has directed police to file a complaint against the PDP leaders, PTI reported.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mufti slammed the administration over the order and said it seems COVID protocols are only for her party and not the BJP, which held a protest in Kashmir on Friday.
“Covid 19 restrictions apply only to PDP. Not to BJP’s protest in Kashmir yesterday, PM’s rally in Punjab or the mass poojas attended by hundreds of people to pray for his safety. Talks volumes about J&K admin’s brazen bias against my party,” she wrote on Twitter.
The PDP also shared on Twitter a video purportedly showing the deputy commissioner of Anantnag without face masks at a New Year’s Eve gathering.
“Here DC Anantnag dancing on New Year’s eve without a mask where crowd ran into thousands but when it comes to PDP, COVID-19 suddenly resurfaces and turns political,” the party tweeted.
The PDP leaders against whom police action has been ordered are Sartaj Madni, Sayeed’s brother-in-law who is a former deputy speaker of the legislative assembly, and former minister Abdul Rehman Veeri.
Mehbooba was also part of Friday’s event but was not named in the order of the executive magistrate.
