Srinagar, June 25, 2021 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, People Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti has declared that she will not contest polls until Article 370 is restored and if her party won, she will not be Chief Minister.

Mehbooba Mufti in an interview with Indian news channel NDTV said, “I won’t fight any election until Article 370 is restored. Otherwise they will say I am doing it for political gains. But my party does not want to leave any democratic space or it will be taken away by other forces. If the party wins, there are other senior leaders. I will not be Chief Minister. I want to send message to my people that it is not a mere slogan for me.” Her remarks came a day after a meeting of Kashmiri political leaders with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. She stressed that before elections, the Indian government needs to reach out to people and restore their shattered confidence.

The three-hour meeting was Modi’s first outreach to political leaders of IIOJK since his government’s decision of scraping the special status of IIOJK under Article 370 and dividing it into two Union Territories on August 05, 2019. He assured the Kashmiri leaders that statehood of IIOJK would be restored “at an appropriate time” but urged them to get on board with delimitation or redrawing of constituencies so elections could be held in the occupied territory.

“Before elections we need Confidence Building Measures as people’s confidence is shaken, they are shattered. They are depressed…you need to reach out to people first, elections can wait,” said the PDP leader. Mehbooba Mufti said that “there is so much oppression in Jammu and Kashmir. People are unable to even breathe. The situation on the ground in J and K is not what they are portraying to the world. People are unhappy and feeling suffocated”. She added, “Journalists these days get notices for their reporting, so people can’t report freely. Security forces pick up people for the smallest of things and are harassed.”

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