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Pro-Pakistan slogans: Mehbooba Mufti writes to PM, says cannot force patriotism

People's Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti has slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party and said that nobody can become patriots with a stick.

Pro Pakistan slogans Mehbooba Mufti writes to PM, says cannot force patriotism
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Srinagar, First Published Oct 30, 2021, 6:18 PM IST

Amid the controversy over the arrest of students who raised pro-Pakistan slogans after the country's victory over India in the ongoing T20 World Cup, People's Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti has slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party and said that nobody can become patriots with a stick.

Terming the arrests and booking of students as counter-productive, Mehbooba said that this would deteriorate the situation in the Kashmir Valley. The PDP chief has shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard. In the letter, Mehbooba said, she had urged the Prime Minister to try and win the hearts of Kashmiris.

"Nation does not run by using a stick or by coercion. Such actions can lower the morale of the Kashmiri youth, distance them from the mainstream, and create more issues for Jammu and Kashmir," Mehbooba said.

This is not the first time that the PDP chief has spoken about the arrest of students. Taking to social media, Mehbooba had recently criticised what she called high-handedness of the Centre. She also said that the government should foist nationalism on anybody, but instead engage with these youngsters.

Regional parties in Kashmir share a common stand that while the students were wrong in raising pro-Pakistan slogans after the match, but it was equally important for the government to show leniency. J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, meanwhile, said that pressure exerted by any political party will not work in this case and that the law will take its own course. 

Two cases have been filed against some medical students living in hostels at the Government Medical College in Karan Nagar in Srinagar and SKIMS Soura by the Jammu and Kashmir Police under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Three Kashmiri students were also arrested and booked in Uttar Pradesh's Agra for raising anti-national slogans after the India-Pakistan match. The arrest followed an FIR registered against them by BJP Yuva Morcha leader Gaurav Rajawat.

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