Iltija Mufti’s X Account Withheld Amid FIR, Intensifying Political Storm in J&K

Srinagar: The ‘X’ account of Iltija Mufti — daughter of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti — has been withheld in India following what the platform described as a “legal demand.”

The restriction appeared just days after the Cyber Police Kashmir registered an FIR against her over the circulation of an old video of late Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Users attempting to access her account within India were met with a notice stating that the platform had complied with a legal request to limit visibility.

The PDP reacted sharply, calling the move a troubling signal for democratic freedoms. In a public statement, the party argued that withholding the account of a political figure who regularly comments on critical issues concerning J&K raises “serious concerns about freedom of expression and suppression of democratic voices,” adding that silencing individuals does not silence the issues they highlight.

A day after the FIR was filed on April 30, Iltija Mufti publicly accepted full responsibility for sharing the Geelani clip. She urged the J&K Police not to summon or intimidate individuals who had merely reposted or endorsed her content, insisting that she alone should be questioned. Reiterating her position on ‘X’, she described herself as a law‑abiding citizen willing to cooperate fully with the authorities.

The FIR stems from her posting of an undated video in which the separatist patriarch Geelani spoke about the cultural and religious importance of Urdu, accusing India of attempting to weaken the language through “people imposed on us.” He urged parents to ensure their children learned Urdu, warning that its decline would erode a vital cultural inheritance. Mufti had shared the clip with the remark that, despite her ideological differences with Geelani, his comments on Urdu were relevant and “worth a watch.”

The controversy erupted at a moment when Mufti was already leading a political campaign against what she described as attempts to dilute the role of Urdu in the revenue department. She criticised both past and recent government orders, arguing that the administration had been sidelining Urdu since a 2015 directive under then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah that mandated digitisation exclusively in English. According to her, this created inconsistencies because historical land and revenue records are maintained in Urdu. Her criticism intensified after a recent notification allegedly proposed new recruitment rules that removed Urdu proficiency as a requirement for posts such as patwaris and tehsildars.

The FIR No. 11 was registered at the Cyber Police Station Srinagar under Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with other provisions related to acts threatening national sovereignty and promoting separatist narratives. The FIR also names unidentified individuals who shared or amplified the video. Authorities claimed the circulated material appeared intended to promote separatist ideology and incite unlawful activities, cautioning the public against sharing inflammatory content online.

The issue quickly escalated into a political confrontation. Chief Minister Abdullah accused the PDP of spreading “lies” about the status of Urdu to distract from what he described as the party’s political alignment with the BJP. He clarified that the government had merely sought public feedback on a departmental proposal and had not approved any move to drop Urdu. According to him, Mufti had misunderstood the administrative process, and seeking public comments did not amount to removing the language.

Mufti responded sharply on ‘X’, accusing Abdullah of downplaying an official order that, in her view, signalled an intention to remove Urdu from revenue services. She argued that even soliciting public opinion on such a proposal reflected a willingness to “erase history,” urging the government to withdraw what she called a “shambolic opinion poll” on the future of the language.

The dispute deepened further when an RTI reply suggested that the PDP had not appointed a chief agent for the previous year’s Rajya Sabha elections — a detail the National Conference interpreted as evidence of a tacit PDP–BJP understanding. Abdullah linked the current turmoil to the PDP’s past collaboration with the BJP, asserting that J&K continued to bear the consequences of that political partnership.

As the NC and the PDP continue trading accusations over the latter’s failure to appoint an agent for the Rajya Sabha elections, former minister and J&K People’s Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone has sharply criticised both parties for what he described as “gifting” a Rajya Sabha seat to the BJP. Speaking to reporters here, Lone said that the same parties that routinely accuse others of aligning with the BJP had, in fact, enabled the party’s victory.

Lone alleged that the PDP acted with malafide intent by not appointing an authorised agent to verify the votes cast by its MLAs. According to him, the RTI reply confirmed that no agent had been designated, allowing all three PDP legislators to vote as they wished without oversight. He argued that this lapse raised serious questions about the party’s motives.

He also targetted former Chief Minister Abdullah, questioning how the head of the government could claim he learned about the missing PDP agent only through an RTI. Lone suggested that such statements were an attempt to deflect attention from cross‑voting in the Rajya Sabha polls, insisting that both the NC and PDP were now trying to shift blame rather than address what had actually transpired.