Letter folded into a tiny square, rolled into a chapatti, smuggled in a lunch box.
This is how former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has been communicating with her daughter in Kashmir, Ilitija disclosed in a long post on Twitter.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has been under preventive custody since August 5, when Centre abrogated Article 370 stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its statehood and dividing the state in two Union Territories.
Describing her mother's detention, Iltija wrote, ""On a personal level, words escape me to describe the past six months since the reading down of Article 370 followed by my mother's detention. In particular I will never forget the week that she was arrested and jailed."
She goes on to state, "I spent next few days riddled with anxiety until I received a crumpled and tersely worded note, the first of many furtively exchanged letters. I found it in a tiffin box that contained home cooked food sent for her."
Mehbooba Mufti's note for Iltija warned her against using her Twitter profile on her behalf. "They have taken an undertaking that I won't be using social media to communicate. In case someone else does it, he will be booked on charges of impersonation. Love you and miss you a lot," Mehbooba Mufti wrote in her first note to her daughter. According to Ilitija, many notes followed.
Explaining how she sent her notes back to her mother, Iltija said, "My grandmother found an ingenious solution. The letter I wrote was folded into a tiny square and carefully sealed, rolled and locked inside the middle of a chapatti."
Iltija has claimed that she was able to communicate via these notes with her mother despite a very heavy security at the state guest house, where she was put up for six months. According to sources, even as she will be most likely shifted to her residence soon she will remain under house arrest as she has been charged under Public Safety Act.
Mehbooba Mufti was earlier kept at Chashmashahi guest house and was shifted to a government bungalow on MA Road in Srinagar in December after her daughter said she was suffering from the severe cold weather.
While Mufti will continue to be held at the government house, Omar Abdullah will remain in custody at Hari Niwas, a state guest house.
