Friyana Munshi

Jammu, March 29, 2021: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti claimed on Monday that she had been denied a passport. At the same time, she has been described as a ‘threat to the country’ based on the report of the Criminal Investigative Department (CID) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

In this regard, Mehbooba Mufti posted a letter from the Regional Passport Officer, Srinagar on her Twitter account. “The passport office refused to issue my passport based on the CID report and said I was a threat to India’s security,” she said. “It is the level of normalcy achieved in Kashmir since August 2019 that a former Chief Minister receiving a passport is a threat to the sovereignty of a powerful nation.”

The letter states that the Additional Director General of Police of Jammu and Kashmir, CID, has recommended not issuing passports to Mufti. Mufti had already approached the High Court for issuing passports as she had applied for the document last year.

During the hearing on March 23, Additional Solicitor General TM Shamsi, representing the Ministry of External Affairs and the Regional Passport Office, requested a stay of the hearing for some time when a lawyer appearing for the Jammu and Kashmir CID, Justice Ali Mohammed Magre stated that the verification report on his passport application has been submitted very recently on 18 March.

Meanwhile, the PDP chairman was also questioned by Enforcement Directorate officials in Srinagar last week.