Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti was stopped from meeting family of Athar Mushtaq on Saturday. Mushtaq was killed in an encounter on the outskirts of Srinagar on December 31, 2020. The PDP leaders tweeted a video where she can be heard asking the authorities for the reason why she was not allowed to leave her house. She wrote, “Placed under house arrest as usual for trying to visit the family of Athar Mushtaq killed allegedly in a fake encounter. His father was booked under UAPA for demanding his dead body. This the normalcy GOI wants to showcase to the EU delegation visiting Kashmir.”

According to media reports, Mushtaq, along with Ajaz Maqbool Ganai and Zubair Ahmad Lone, had been killed in an encounter on New Year’s Eve.

Earlier, Mufti tweeted about Athar’s father, Mushtaq Wani, being booked for allegedly demanding the body of his son. “This reign of suppression & terror in Kashmir is the unvarnished & unpalatable truth that GOI wants to hide from the rest of the country. A 16 year old is killed & then hurriedly buried denying his family the right & chance to perform his last rites,” she said.

Notably all the three families have been demanding the release of the bodies of their kin killed in an encounter.

The former chief minister was detained for over one year after the Centre scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in 2019.