Malik accuses Mufti of choking political space, to start 'jail bharo' campaign from Friday

Separatist JKLF chief Yasin Malik on Wednesday accused chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of choking separatists' political space and threatened a 10-day-long 'jail bharo' (court arrest) campaign starting Friday.

"This government is choking political space. I have a democratic right to reach out to the people. It is better to court arrest than being detained now and then and restrained to our houses," said Malik.

"If this government thinks it will run for six years by putting us in chains, I want to make it clear that we will not allow it," said Malik.

The JKLF chief held a press conference in Srinagar on Wednesday in the wake of repeated detention by the security forces. He was disallowed a public meeting two days ago in south Kashmir's Pulwama district.

"We were planning to stay in villages as part of our peaceful struggle. But the security forces put our worker behind the bars for pitching a tent. A driver, who is not with the JKLF, was also arrested," alleged Malik, who was only allowed two major public events since the PDP-BJP government took over the reins of the state on March 1.

The separatist leader sought the intervention of the European Union, US and UK's Kashmir interlocutors. "I want to ask those groups who would come to us suggesting to start a peaceful movement. Is this the response to our move to start a peaceful struggle," he added.

The JKLF leaders and activists are scheduled to start courting arrests from upcoming Friday. "I will be the first to court arrest. It will be on for 10 days. Next protest programme will be announced later," said Malik. He accused CM Sayeed of retracting on the promises made during the assembly polls. "Where are the slogans like 'battle of ideas, and 'dialogue not gun is the solution' which were dished out to rig public opinion during polls in Kashmir?" he asked.

He claimed the choking of political space in the past forced the youth to pick up the gun in the state. "Mufti is trying to be young Farooq Abdullah in the old age by visiting Bollywood. He along with the RSS rigged public opinion during polls by propagating BJP threat and later joined hands with it," he said.