Prevented from reaching out to people in distress: Mehbooba Mufti

PDP President and former J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday alleged that she has been barred from visiting the family of a youth who committed suicide in Kulgam district.

In a video message on Twitter, she alleged that she was prevented from visiting the house of Shoaib Bashir who ended his life by consuming poison on Wednesday after the salary of his schoolteacher father was stopped for more than two years.

She said the government does not reach out to families in distress and is preventing her doing that.

"In J&K besides security, COVID has become another excuse to prevent me from reaching out to people in distress. Government of India wants to obfuscate the truth and brush such tragedies under the run," she wrote on Twitter.

Mehbooba Mufti said on one hand, the government tells the youth to leave violence and join the mainstream for a peaceful life but on the other hand, they are subjected to humiliation.

Bashir had recorded a video message before committing suicide where he had said that the reason for him to take the extreme step was the non-payment of salary to his father and some other teachers for two and a half years.

The salary of his father was reportedly stopped for involvement in subversive activities during the past though the police had given him a clean chit.