Adv. Bashir Dar, Sheikh Imran & Irfan Panditpuri Dismantle Iltija, Rishi and Para’s Claims in Fiery Presser
Srinagar, July 31:
J&K Peoples Conference held a combative press conference on Friday with senior party leaders going on the offensive against PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, former colleague Yasir Rishi, Iltija Mufti and Waheed Para over a series of recent provocations.
The presser was chaired by PC Chief Spokesperson Advocate Bashir Ahmed Dar alongside Secretary Organisation Sheikh Mohammad Imran, Provincial President Kashmir Irfan Panditpuri and Spokesperson Muneeb Quraishi.
Opening proceedings, Advocate Dar announced that the People’s Conference was formally conferring a new title upon PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, “Pellet Queen.”
“She went to Jantar Mantar in Delhi and said that firing pellets on Kashmiris, injuring approximately 12,000 people, was justified. The people drew their own conclusions about her true motives,” he said.
Dar made clear the party would not let the matter rest, stating that the debate would continue until Mehbooba offered a genuine unconditional apology to the youth of Kashmir whose lives were shattered by pellet guns.
On Yasir Rishi’s claim that he was coerced by agencies into switching political parties, Dar was withering. Around 2015 and 2016, Rishi had enjoyed intimate access to the PC Chairman’s inner circle and participated in major decisions, making his portrayal of himself as a helpless victim of agency coercion implausible and, Dar argued, an insult to public intelligence.
“I challenge him to produce a single instance where Sajjad Lone threatened him. Provide the logic and the proof,” he said.
Party Provincial President Irfan Panditpuri then delivered a damaging blow to Rishi’s narrative. It was Rishi himself who had personally approached Panditpuri in 2017 while serving as a PDP MLC and urged him to join the People’s Conference.
Panditpuri officially joined in 2018 well before the revocation of Article 370 and at a time when no agency pressure was being alleged by anyone. “He was the architect of those recruitments,” Panditpuri said. “His claims today are not just absurd, they are self-incriminating.”
Dar reserved his sharpest words for Waheed Para who had threatened that PC Chairman Sajjad Lone would not be “allowed to walk the streets.” Calling Para an agency operative nurtured by external forces, Dar drew a pointed contrast between Sajjad Lone’s clean political record and those Para now defends.
He then made a personal disclosure that when Para was in jail, he witnessed Para’s family weeping at Sajjad Lone’s feet and that the Chairman had financially supported that household through its darkest period. “I am a witness to this,” Dar said. “And yet today this same man drags Sajjad Lone’s family into politics. We maintain political decorum. They should learn some.”
Secretary Organisation Sheikh Mohammad Imran described the PDP’s previous day’s press conference as a “frustration conference” designed to distract from Mehbooba Mufti’s pellet remarks rather than answer for them.
PDP had blamed artificial intelligence for the controversy, sought cover from a BJP member and ultimately branded ordinary Kashmiris including journalists, students and businessmen as militants. “The AI alibi only rubbed mud on their own faces,” Imran said.
Imran defended Chairman Sajjad Lone’s viral Kashmiri language video which opponents had mocked as “Ladeeshah.” His response was direct: “If delivering a message in our native Kashmiri language is a disgrace to them, we are ready to bear that disgrace because we are Kashmiris.”
He then challenged the credibility of threats issued by Iltija Mufti, noting the irony of someone from the Mufti political dynasty threatening the son of martyred separatist leader Abdul Ghani Lone. “Do they think Kashmiris are stupid?” he asked.
Imran made further disclosures about Rishi’s conduct, alleging that Rishi had sent him two pages of abusive content against Mehbooba Mufti just before their joint appearance at the PDP event and had himself used vile language against the PDP chief while actively recruiting people into the PC.
He accused Rishi’s true ambition was to hijack the party in partnership with Muzaffar Baig and Safina Baig and that when that failed, he attempted to pressure Sajjad Lone through retired officers.
Closing his remarks Imran drew a final contrast between the two sides. The People’s Conference had faced the ED and CBI, cleared their bank loans without capitulating and their Chairman moved through Kashmir with just two policemen while their opponents enjoyed Z-category security and SSG cover.
“We are here because of the people,” he said. “Not because of agencies. Not because of lineage. Because of the people.”