J&K finance minister's wife asks PDP-BJP govt to step down

Roohi Nazki, wife of Jammu & Kashmir's finance minister Haseeb Drabu, wrote a Facebook post on Friday asking the ruling PDP-BJP government led by Mehbooba Mufti to step down because "the brutal killings of children, the criminal blinding and maiming of protesters, and the shameless suffocating of an entire population is wrong".

She added that the government's reaction to protests in the state after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed on 8 July, was "immoral, unethical, tragic and wrong".

Nazki is also related to J&K's education minister Nayeem Akhtar, revenue minister Basharat Bukhari and inspector general of police Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani, says The Indian Express.

She said in her post: "Whatever has been happening in Kashmir over the last 14 days is terribly wrong. The brutal killings of children, the criminal blinding and maiming of protesters, and the shameless suffocating of an entire population is wrong. It is wrong even if it has been happening over the last two decades or so. It is wrong even if there are 'far too many agencies at work trying to keep Kashmir burning'. It is wrong no matter what excuse we are fed, day in and day out. It is wrong irrespective of who feeds us the excuses."

She added: "And it is wrong in the most fundamental, most shameful and the most damning way. For, it is the children of Kashmir that are being killed on street corners, by the security forces of our country. Who pump pellets into their young bodies. It is in a democratic nation that a whole population is taken hostage for days on end, without basic amenities, without phones, without newspapers. And it is happening under the watch of a popularly elected government."

Nazki said the government's reaction to the protests in the Valley needs to be rectified. She wrote: "...the powers that be need to either step up and stop the wrongdoings. Or they need to step down. I guess they just need to step down... what matters most is to keep the faith for our future generations. So that they can know the face of truth. Their truth. Our truth. They can do this. And they should.

"They need to step down so that we can be convinced that every popularly elected government doesn't necessarily turn into an unresponsive monolith as soon as it is sworn into power. That each successive regime in Kashmir does not have to become indistinguishable from the previous one. That our leaders do not all have to transform into horrific, faceless, and voiceless entities."

She asked the PDP-BJP government to listen to their consciences: "Their stepping down may not stop the injustice. But that is not all that matters. What matters more is for them to register a protest. To not become complicit by default. To break the silence and the cycle of waiting and watching. To have a conscience and keep it. To uphold truth if not justice."