Mufti calls for DGP’s dismissal over allegations against political parties

Sri Nagar: Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (J&K PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti has criticized Director General of Police (DGP) R R Swain, who accused political parties in the Valley of facilitating Pakistan’s infiltration into civil society. Mufti labeled him a “communal fixer” attempting to “hide his failures and hide behind the mainstream and regional political parties.”

Mufti demanded Swain’s dismissal, citing his inability to prevent the loss of soldiers’ lives in the past three years and accusing him of “waging war” against the Muslim community, The Indian Express reported.

“Unfortunately, there is no accountability. By now, the heads should have rolled… the DG should have been sacked by now,” Mufti said, condemning the killing of four soldiers in a gunfight in Jammu’s Doda on Monday night. “It has been a complete failure since the last 32 months, especially since he has been made the DG,” the former J&K chief minister added.

On Monday, at a function at IIM Jammu, DGP Swain had controversially accused mainstream political parties of facilitating Pakistan’s infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir civil society. “Pakistan successfully infiltrated all important aspects of civil society, thanks to so-called mainstream and regional politics in the Valley,” Swain had stated.

Mufti claimed that Swain is more focused on political manipulation than his duties as police chief. “He has been more busy fixing things politically. His job is to break the PDP, harass the people, threaten them, harass journalists and businessmen… He is a fixer. We don’t need a fixer here; we need a DGP,” she said.

“We had DGPs from outside the state as well in the past, they have done good work. He (Swain) is working on communal lines. Employees are being terminated in the name of corruption. Who are they? They are from the majority community. You (Swain) have communalised the police,” Mufti continued. “He (Swain) has alienated the majority community. He is treating all of them as Pakistanis.”

Mufti questioned why DGP Swain had not taken action against militants, especially since the Centre has directly ruled Jammu and Kashmir for the last six years. “He (Swain) should know that the party for which he is working, their ideologue, (former) deputy prime minister L K Advani talked to them (separatists) who they have put into the jails,” she said. “For the last six years, the Centre has been running the government here. The Hurriyat leadership has either died or is behind bars. But you (Swain) have waged a war against your own people, you have weaponised passports, you have weaponised verification, you have weaponised agencies.”

Mufti also mentioned Engineer Rashid’s win from the north Kashmir Lok Sabha seat as a significant failure for Swain and the security agencies. “Your biggest failure is in north Kashmir. As is said, I don’t know what case is pending against Engineer Rashid Sahib, if it is like other fake cases – but he has won the election in the name of a plebiscite, on the basis of such speeches. People rejected Omar Sahib, Sajad Sahib.”

Addressing Swain’s reference to the alleged rape and murder of two women in Shopian in 2009, Mufti said, “He (Swain) is talking through the barrel of a gun… you are talking about Asiya and Neelofar. If I had handed over the Kathua case (rape-murder of a girl) to CBI, they all would have been free. I stood firm and said my police are competent enough.”

Apart from Mufti, People’s Conference chief Sajad Lone also criticized Swain. “The comments made by the DG J-K Police pertaining to mainstream parties are inappropriate, to say the least. Even in a basic rudimentary functioning democracy such utterances by a serving police officer would not have been tolerated,” Lone posted on X.

“Such statements by serving officers are an indication of the disdain and the contempt for anything remotely pertaining to democracy. Such a sad state of affairs and even sadder is the fact that the script writers of this sad state of affairs take pride in having brought J and K to this level,” he added.