Mehbooba Mufti has been under detention since August last year.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is hearing "reports" of her imminent release, her daughter Iltija Mufti has tweeted a day after the release of another key leader from the state, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Both leaders were put under detention in August, along with scores of other political leaders, as the Centre ended the special status of Jammu and Kashmir granted under the constitution and bifurcated it into two union territories.
Iltija Mufti, who has been running her mother's twitter account since her detention, posted: "My mother is hearing reports of her imminent release & is grateful for the concern. But she's upset about thousands of young boys jailed outside J&K. The trauma their families feel due to COVID outbreak is unimaginable".
Another tweet read:
Omar Abdullah, who like Ms Mufti, was charged under the tough Public Safety Act, was released yesterday amid the threat of the coronavirus outbreak. The release came hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown in the country in an effort to break the chain of the virus transmission through social distancing.
Mr Abdullah's father, 83-year-old Farooq Abdullah, who was under house arrest since August, was released a few days earlier.
Since his release, Omar Abdullah has repeatedly flagged the continued detention of Mehbooba Mufti and other political leaders.
"It is callous and cruel to continue to detain Mehbooba Mufti and others at a time like this. There was never much justification to detain everyone in the first place and none at all to keep them detained as the country enters a three-week lockdown. I hope Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release them," he tweeted today.
Yesterday, when news came that Omar Abdullah would soon be released, a tweet from Mehbooba Mufti read: "Glad he will be released. For all their talk of nari Shakti & women emancipation, seems like this regime fears women the most."