Srinagar, June 8, 2023(KNS) : Jammu & Kashmir peoples Democratic Party (JKPDP) President and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday condemned the abaya ban in a Srinagar educational institute and the policy of persecution of Muslims in J&K.

Mufti was referring to the recent controversy wherein the girl students of an educational institution in Srinagar alleged that they were told to do away with their Abaya in order to enter the institution. 

Referring to the Hijab ban in Karnataka, she said that BJP wants to bring the same thing to Kashmir.  She said that the ban is an attempt to impose Hindutva ideology on the Muslim community in Kashmir.

"The abaya is significant in the context of how we choose to dress as Kashmiri Muslim Women and it is the right of our daughters to wear it if they so choose ," Mufti said. "The government has no right to interfere in their personal choices.”

She also expressed concern about the targeting of religious scholars and leaders in Kashmir. "It is clear that there is a pattern to how they are targeting us on religious matters," she said. "Many of our religious leaders and scholars are in jails and others are being harassed."

Mufti said that the government is trying to erode and target the muslim majority character of Kashmir. "They are targeting our basic constitutional rights where we get to choose what we wear, what we eat and practise our religion," she said. 

"This is unacceptable and intolerable.We will not tolerate this," she said. "We will not allow them to turn our region into a laboratory for their Hindutva experiments."(KNS)