Iltija reveals how she communicated with her incarcerated mother

Srinagar: The people of Kashmir continue to be “deprived of fundamental rights and have suffered grave economic and psychological tribulations”, said Iltija Mufti, daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, describing in a long note, the last six months during which her mother has been in arrest.
“On a personal level, words escape me to describe the past six months since the reading down of Article 370 followed by my mother’s detention,” Iltija Mufti tweeted a post from Mehbooba Mufti’s account, just before she confirmed that her mother was charged under the Public Safety Act.
Ms Mufti and Omar Abdullah, also a former Chief Minister, were on Thursday charged under the Public Safety Act – a stringent law that allows detention without trial for up to three months and multiple extensions. The order came on the last day of their six-month detention without charges.
Iltija Mufti, who has been operating her mother’s Twitter handle since August last year, describes how she communicated with the People’s Democratic Party chief.
“I’ll never forget the week that she was arrested and jailed. I spent the next few days riddled with anxiety until I received a crumpled and tersely worded note, the first of many furtively exchanged letters. I found it in a tiffin box that contained home cooked food sent for her,” Iltija Mufti wrote.
According to Iltija Mufti, here is what Mehbooba Mufti, wrote to her in that tiffin box note: “They have taken an understanding that I won’t be using social media to communicate. In case someone else does it, he’ll be booked on charges of impersonation. Love you and miss you a lot.”
“Soon, the dilemma of dispatching a reply arose. My grandmother found an ingenious solution. The letter I wrote was folded into a tiny square and carefully sealed, rolled and locked inside the middle of a chapatti,” Iltija Mufti writes.
Mehbooba Mufti was earlier kept at Chashmashahi guest house and was shifted to a government quarter on MA Road in Srinagar in December after her daughter said she was suffering from the severe cold weather. (KNT)

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