A Villa, hidden behind trees. The young woman is located on the first floor. Iltija Mufti hails from Kashmir and is fighting for the release of their mother. The case of Mufti is a political issue in India, but also a very personal Drama. It tells of right and wrong, Power and powerlessness in Kashmir – a territory that separates India from the eyes of the world, and iron in a controlled manner. Iltija Mufti is in two worlds at home, shuttling between Srinagar and Delhi.

light flooded through the window, warming rays of the sun, but the 32-Year-old has knocked over a scarf. She seems almost lost in the huge space. The guest is allowed on the chair, Iltija, the Mufti of the Sofa to choose. Four meters distance, this is more than polite, distant almost.

“Why should we not say what we think”, asks Iltija Mufti. Your mother is accused to have provoked harassment and violence. Photo: Getty

The young woman now tells the story of the arrest of her mother, she speaks in a liquid, but her voice sounds irritated. Mehbooba Mufti was the last Prime Minister of the semi-Autonomous state of Jammu and Kashmir that belongs to India. Now she lives locked in a guest house of the government. “I was there when she was arrested in August. My mother grabbed quickly a few clothes in a hand Luggage suitcase, how to do it for a day or two.” But then you came out. And not even the closest relatives were allowed in the first weeks. “You wanted my mother can feel the emotional Stress,” says the daughter. The Isolation, the uncertainty.

Mufti shares this fate with other politicians of Kashmir. Your lack of freedom is the Symbol of a crisis that India actually has nothing to want to know. Delhi claims that all the course in Kashmir in normal cars. It sets Iltija Mufti are referred to as absurd. “Nothing is normal in Kashmir. There is this joke: Kashmir has a rich Fauna and Flora, but nothing grows as good as the rolls of barbed wire.” These are the most obvious symbols of a military that imposed in the summer of a draconian Blockade on more than 8 million people.

thousands were detained without charge and procedure, there were curfews, the Internet was switched off. Meanwhile, some of the restrictions are loosened. “But even the ones that were officially released, can not move freely,” says Iltija Mufti. The Internet was blocked months, is now unlocked again, however, there is a maximum of 2G. “Every Time I am in Kashmir, I have a suffocating feeling,” says Iltija Mufti, the shuttling between Delhi and Srinagar.

special status

Kashmir is sandwiched between India, Pakistan and China, the area is divided in to two Wars. Each of the rival States controlled only a part of the former princely state, the Maharaja opted to the withdrawal of the British for India. In Kashmir, the predominantly populated Muslim, collide with the interests of the nuclear powers with the desire of Kashmir to self – reliance- a complicated and explosive mixture.

In August, India had altered the Status quo unilaterally and drastically: Delhi withdrew from Kashmir the special status of the territory lost over night Autonomous rights. And the politician Mufti lost abruptly their freedom, although they had been convicted of no crime. “Preventive detention” is the name of the. The first Phase, after “Section 107” of the criminal law catalogue lasted for half a year, now, Mufti has to expect that they will remain much longer locked up. The state has brought the Public Safety Act (PSA) against them, in position, the can cost you for a further two years of freedom, without process. Is justified the step with a Dossier.

“The Europeans seem to have already decided: India as a market is more important to you than the respect of human rights.” Iltija Mufti

Iltija Mufti believes that this paper was dictated in Delhi, the mother is accused to have provoked agitation and violence, was a danger to the public order. “But where is the evidence?”, Iltija Mufti asks. Also, you will be surprised about the sexist passages – such as the allegation, Mehbooba Daddy’s Girl”, is noted that their marriage had held just short. be”

Mehbooba Mufti belongs to a politician-Clan, her father was Prime Minister of Kashmir, in addition, the only Muslim Minister of the interior, the India’s Central government had ever had. But what is the meaning of “Daddy’s girl” in a prison dossier? If you ask a constitutional lawyer, Sanjay Hegde. “It could be legally irrelevant passages,” he says. Perhaps such formulations pursued other purposes, and he could not speak. Iltija Mufti has no doubt about what you intend the sentences: “you are to humiliate my mother, and insult.”

irony is, because it’s Mehbooba was the Mufti, which was received as her father – a coalition with the Hindu nationalists, to govern Kashmir. And now they lock Mufti? “My mother produced a sense of betrayal,” says the daughter.

Mehbooba Mufti was the last Prime Minister of the semi-Autonomous state of Jammu and Kashmir that belongs to India. Photo: Reuters

she Has a Chance? “There must be reasons for preventive detention, claimed that the lie for so long,” said a lawyer for hedge. Mufti has now filed a Petition to the constitutional court, in order to obtain her release, on 18. March should be heard your case.

Iltija Mufti, however, also makes it clear that she puts little faith in the Indian judiciary, since the judgment for a place of pilgrimage Ayodyha fell. Hindus are allowed to build a temple, where once a fanatical Mob destroyed a mosque. Mufti sees this as a sign of how much the judiciary bends to the pressure of Hindu zealots.

An end to the imprisonment for Mufti is for the moment not foreseeable. “My mother reads a lot now,” says the daughter. Historical novels, the Koran, and Nelson Mandela. “We joke about it even, because she las never used to like.” This is, after all, an advantage of the adhesive. The Humor can, however, eliminate the load, pushes the mother and daughter down, barely. Iltija is a sense of crippling powerlessness. “Some days I don’t want to get up at all,” she says, even if she has the Chance now to visit their mother regularly in Srinagar.

letter in pita breads

The start was different. There remained only to hide the letter in pita bread, if you are the mother to eat sent. The grandma had the idea to smuggle the so. And it worked. What is it but Delhi has to be afraid of? “You fear that our political leaders speak critically about the withdrawal of autonomy and the people are looking at this as a call for Protest.” Protest but must not give it, because Delhi wants that everything looks normal.

Once the young woman has not believed in India as a pluralistic country now. But Pakistan have not played a good role, the neighbor had taken advantage of the crisis, sometimes exacerbated. Many of the puzzles, which forces Delhi to Kashmir now wants to rule. “You can’t grab new leadership figures, Yes just from the air,” says Mufti. Who was always ready to cooperate now with Delhi, will lose its credibility among Kashmirern. “I know how much hostility my mother was, as they came in with the BJP in an Alliance.”

Mehbooba Mufti would, perhaps, be free again, she would have bent to the dictates from Delhi. “You wanted my mother signed a commitment, to criticise the withdrawal of autonomy.” She has denied. And your daughter looks pleased. “Why should we not say what we think? This is a democracy, or we live in a banana Republic?”

In any case, India is a state whose government is doing so, as everything was in Kashmir in order. Other countries, such as in Europe, seems to deal hardly, it is not surprising Mufti. “The Europeans seem to have already decided: India as a market is more important to you than the respect of human rights.”

Created: 12.03.2020, 17:59 PM