Time now, for hardtalk. It has been two months since india revoked the special autonomous status ofJammu And Kashmir, and delhi still has the territory in a form of lockdown. Political leaders are detained, troops are on the streets and communication links are disrupted. The Modi Government seems confident its dramatic cancellation of a 70 year old dispensation has worked, but what of kashmiri feeling . My my guess is iltija mufti, the daughter of former chief minister of kashmir, kashmir Mehbooba Mufti was currently in detention. To the kashmiris have any choice but to accept their new reality . Iltija mufti in delhi, the welcome to hardtalk. Thank you for having me. Let me begin with your personal situation. You are speaking to me from the indian capital, delhi, not from the indian capital, delhi, not from your home in kashmir. Does that suggest that you personally are free right now to travel to communicate, to do whatever you want . Not in a real sense, no. I to do whatever you want . Not in a realsense, no. I received to do whatever you want . Not in a real sense, no. I received veiled threats from the Indian Government that if i continue speaking they will slap what is known as a psa, a Public Service safe act on my mother and they will not be allowed to challenge her detention for at least two years. She could possibly spend over two months up to two yea rs spend over two months up to two years injailandi spend over two months up to two years injailand i have spend over two months up to two years injail and i have received indirect threats that if i keep speaking i could be booked as well. Soi speaking i could be booked as well. So i dont think i am completely free at the moment. We should pursue that because i am mindful that a few weeks ago we spoke to another kashmiri politician and hours after he spoke to us, he was arrested at Delhi Airport and was then taken to kashmir and is still in detention. Do you believe the same may happen to you . I think it is too late for that to happen. Ifeel that to you . I think it is too late for that to happen. I feel that i to you . I think it is too late for that to happen. Ifeel that i have expressed it so many times on a public platform. I also spoke to the guardiana public platform. I also spoke to the guardian a month ago expressing apprehension that they could arrest me all they could just rounded me up like thousands of people, thousands of kashmiris have beenjailed. But they have been quite unpredictable andi they have been quite unpredictable and i think there has been a method to the madness. I dont know what to expect from them. Their behaviour has been under the bull. It is hard to see if something will happen to me but i dont think if i am doing anything wrong, i am just asking for oui anything wrong, i am just asking for our rights for the last two months, oui our rights for the last two months, our constitutional rights, our liberties have been relegated to the dustbin. If i am seeing something wrong i am asking for the government to restore the rights of kashmiris. 0ver to restore the rights of kashmiris. Over the last two months they have been caged like animals and treated like some humans and i think this is a subversion of democratic norms and it is not befitting for the world s largest democracy. Lets deal with some of your charges, one by one. You say that kashmiris are caged like animals and that is not inflammatory phrase to use. Lets start with your own mother. She was chief minister of the state ofJammu And Kashmir. She has been outspoken since the august five revocation of article 370 and very soon after that she was detained, as i understand she was detained, as i understand she is currently still being held in a government statehouse in kashmir. So you tell me, you have been able to visit her, what is her Current Situation . Firstly, iwant to to visit her, what is her Current Situation . Firstly, i want to bring to your notice that i was not allowed to visit her for about a month stop she was taken on the fifth and i only got to see her on the 29th, four weeks later. And i could only see her after the Supreme Court passed an order saying that the government of india could not restrict me from seeing my mother. She is a strong person. She has a lot of inner strength. At this time i would say she is quite distressed about the situation and she has heard about how thousands of minor children have been detained and taken from their beds in the middle of the night and that this has been done by paramilitary forces, by the army. And reports have emerged when children as young as nine and ten have been taken and tortured. She is worried about the situation and the problem is they are trying to smuggle all kashmiri voices. They wa nt to smuggle all kashmiri voices. They want to make sure that no voice can tell the rest of the world about the repression the kashmiris are being subjected to. Of course, there is a danger of exaggeration and false information also being spread and when you and your mother, i understand you currently are running her twitter feed, correct me understand you currently are running her twitterfeed, correct me if understand you currently are running her twitter feed, correct me if i am wrong. I am. So when you perpetuate these charges that the indian state has arrested, as you say, thousands of children and is, in your view, torturing some of them. What evidence do you have . Those are serious allegations and the Indian Government has rejected them categorically. Bbc, New York Times of god into the heart of the city and have documented these charges. Reuters news agency, three weeks ago prodded up the numbers of people who they could find from official accounts having been arrested. This is from official accounts. They found evidence for over 3800 people having been arrested and they believe more than 2000 of those have since been released. So i am just wondering, when you accuse the indians of rounding up thousands and thousands of children, whether that really matches reality. The truth is that we have a government that has a brute majority and and an agenda. They are not even concealing that at the moment. They are clear about it and they have lied about everything about this operation right from the start full of people were initially told that nothing of this sort would happen and that the reason why they deployed so much army in kashmir was because they were anticipating attack from pakistan that obviously never happened. I have to make it clear that when i met my mother she requested me to write an e mail to the government of india, requesting clarity on the detention of these minor children and it has been over two weeks since i wrote that e mail and there has been absolute pin drop silence and i want to know why is there such a pin drop silence . What is the government trying to hide . The government of india has been very persistent and what they have done is established an iron curtain between kashmir and the rest of the country and the world so there is no way to depend on their word. Whatever they are saying is lies. They even said that i was not placed under detention when the fact of the matter is that i was illegally detained and my house was pretty much a prison for about three weeks and it was only after i wrote a public and open letter to the home minister of india that they decided to let me travel. But iltija mufti, isnt that the point . You work, it seems, under house arrest but ultimately that control on you was lifted. You are here speaking to me openly from delhi and the truth is that if one looks at what the home minister has been saying from delhi recently he says that the prohibitory orders have been lifted from the vast majority of Police Stations in kashmir. 0nly nine Police Station areas continue to have repressive orders where large gatherings are banned. He said that bloodshed has been kept to a minimum and that does seem true, that very few lives have been lost despite the number of limited clashes there have been. And he also says that landlines have been restored in the Kashmir Valley and the people s movements and the longer restricted. So deal with that. To me it seems from him that the situation is evolving and that some of the controls are easing. Would you agree . You put in a lot of information on the question and i need to take apart my part. Firstly you said that i am out and free but iam able you said that i am out and free but i am able to understand, stephen, that i come from a political family and the fact that i am out is not by mere accident. I am out because i had to fight for my freedom and the media takes an interest in speaking to me because i am a former chief minister s daughter. But other people who have been detained, who have been illegally detained, there is no way for them to come out and articulate the torture and the indignation that they have been subjected to. You cited a few exa m ples subjected to. You cited a few examples of, you know, the home minister s statements. Let me tell you he initially said that the former chief minister of jammu in kashmir was not under detention and ten days ago the authorities slapped a psa on him because his detention was challenged. Like i said, you have a rogue government that is fudging the facts and trying to obfuscate the they want to hide the truth, theyre trying to put out false information and the situation has not changed. I want to ask them that if they feel there is normalcy, firstly they have an abnormal template for normalcy. If there is traffic in the city means that things are normal. Well, nothing is normal. Kids have not been to school, colleges and schools have been shut for two months, businesses are on the verge. 0ur been shut for two months, businesses are on the verge. Our economy is on the verge of being crippled and kashmir has been effectively turned into, you know, an open air prison camp stop the information that they give, a lot of it is fudged. You spoke about the landlines, in an age when we rely on cellphones. You keep telling me how awful and terrible things are and alleging things that the Indian Government is doing. It is not the basic point here none of this can surely have come as a surprise in the sense that the bjp ran on a policy platform, as it has done for decades now, of revoking article 370 and fundamentally changing the status quo. As we discussed, your mother was chief minister until 2018. She was chief minister until 2018. She was ina was chief minister until 2018. She was in a Ruling Coalition with the bjp. Your mother believed in what she called a shared future for kashmiris and delhi working together. She was the one who chose together. She was the one who chose to go into government with the bjp. Are you saying your own mother was com pletely are you saying your own mother was completely wrongheaded . Are you saying your own mother was completely wrongheaded . are you saying your own mother was completely wrongheaded . I cannot speakfor completely wrongheaded . I cannot speak for my mother. I cannot speak on behalf of my mother but i want to express my own views from where i see it. When we had elections in 201a and when the results came out, illjammu was taken by the bjp. We w011 illjammu was taken by the bjp. We won the kashmir, we won the majority of seats but we had no other choice than to go with these people because if you do not go with the bjp it is like you disrespect in the mandate of the people. And even before we formed a government with them we created what is known as an agenda reliance which is very clear about a couple of things. For example, article 370. They did not even try touching that in the three years we shared government with them. So obviously, they have had this agenda of, you know, they have had this on their agenda for a while but the fa ct their agenda for a while but the fact that the matter is that we went with them not for power but we thought that, you know, this was the only choice because this was the mandate of the people. You say way andi mandate of the people. You say way and i know you are not directly involved in the party that your mother still leads in kashmir but the truth is we must be realistic about what your mother did. She imposed occasional blocks on communications and the internet when there was instability and unrest and violence in kashmir during the years of her administration. She also saw many people arrested. She took her own special measures alongside delhi to try and build some sort of security inside kashmir. Many kashmiris today, when they hear you went through the twitter feed, your mother, they wonder what on earth your mother was doing. You are not letting me talk to stephen. Your questions are longer than my answers so you must let me talk. Questions are longer than my answers so you must let me talklj questions are longer than my answers so you must let me talk. I dont think that is true, but carry on. So i realise that kashmiris feel a lot of anger towards my mother and the pdp because they feel they went with the bjp. The fact of the matter is that kashmiris had a fragile sense of peace in the past two or three decades. You have had periods of what is called a silent piece which is interrupted and something. You have protests that are triggered by, for example, use of the uprising in 2016, the same thing happened in 2008 and 2010. It is not really about something that has just happened in my mother s administration. But what is happening now is unprecedented. What little autonomy the state had, the government of india has undermined a critically and unconstitutionally stripped us of that autonomy and think that is serious. Instead of comparing cu rfews that think that is serious. Instead of comparing curfews that she imposed during her time, you need to see the gravity of the situation. You need to understand that we are hurtling towards an authoritarian regime. The last two months kashmiris have been suppressed. They lost their voice and this is being done in the garb of development and equal rights when the truth is that they slashed our rights and in the moment they have sinister designs for the people of Jammu And Kashmirand sinister designs for the people of Jammu And Kashmir and they cannot deny it. You make it sound as if there is no going back. Your mother talked about a shared future between kashmiris and deli. From what you are saying, and deli. From what you are saying, and all the allegations you are making, it seems as though you have abandoned that vision of a shared future. Are you now. Let me finish my question. Are you and out and out separatist . You have to understand that what they have done to us has been completely, like, there is not a single kashmiris whose face is not lined with the sense of betrayal in shock and anger, and there is simmering anger. I sojust shock and anger, and there is simmering anger. I so just what shock and anger, and there is simmering anger. I sojust what i feel so angry as a kashmiri. 0ther politicians swore on the constitution of india and what have they done . There has been an agenda to lump lexapro indian politicians with separatists. Why would you do Something Like that . I am trying to tease out from you what you believe you can now offer as a vision for kashmirs future. Have you joined the separatist movement in your current position, it seems there is no space for your mothers politics. Are you now saying you have been pushed into a position where you support even a violent separatist movement . No, first of all, i am not a politician and that is something i have made very clear. Even before we spoke on the programme, i told you i speak as a kashmiri, i am spoke on the programme, i told you i speak as a kashmiri, iam not speaking as a politician. As far as the future of politicians are concerned, i dont know what they would do. The government of india is not even allowing, forget separatists and politicians, they have rounded up thousands and thousands of Civil Society activists, lawyers, they have all been jailed. They have snatched what was rightfully and legally hours and they are not even given an opportunity to express ourselves. They have literally caged us. It is not about my mothers politics or about another pa rtys not about my mothers politics or about another partys politics. That is not what they are concerned about. They are concerned about the decision that has plunged Jammu And Kashmir into an era, into darkness and complete despair. What do you make of International Reaction to what has happened over the last two months . A few weeks ago we saw Prime Minister modi being feted in the united states. Ian donald trump appear be developing quite a friendship at the un general assembly, there were senior politicians including the un secretary general urging maximum restraint, but ultimately saying what happens to kashmir is a bilateral matter between india and pakistan. And must be sorted out in that context. It seems to me, from your point of view, you have had perhaps a disappointing level of engagement from the International Community. First of all, you mentioned, i think what you are mentioning is the modi event, right . That was all for optics. The Prime Minister came back and there was no trade and they might see kashmir as an internal problem. But lets be honest, kashmir has never been internationalised to the extent that it has been spoken about now. You have seen the us congressman who issued statements asking for the government to end the blockade, you even had parliamentarians from the United Kingdom expressing apprehensions about the way they have placed the entire city under siege. I think the International Community is putting pressure on them, but they want to protect otherwise, so this whole event was just to kind of distort the ground reality, and what is funny is that Prime Minister modi said all is well in different languages but not kashmiri. So he pretty much used all languages except kashmiri. The fact of the matter is that he says something and he does something, he says you have to embrace kashmiris but here you have snatched the right from us, and for the past two months every time there has been a death in a family, families havent been able to inform their loved ones. You might tell the world you have best told these equal rights on us, but the truth is you have snatched the right to even mourn from us. And you are humiliating kashmiris. Let me ask you this about the future. You area ask you this about the future. You are a young kashmiri, and if one looks at kashmir in recent times, it has been a territory where there is instability, there is violence, there is joblessness, instability, there is violence, there isjoblessness, there is widespread poverty. A real problems. Can i correct you, there is no widespread poverty. Jammu and kashmir has done pretty well for a strife torn state. In fact it has placed much better in terms of education, literacy rates, sex ratio as well. It is much better than other sites. There is no poverty and Jammu And Kashmiras other sites. There is no poverty and Jammu And Kashmir as such. Of course there is corruption, but i would say corruption is well entrenched in the rest of the country as well. You cannot demote the state on the account, and justify by saying there isa account, and justify by saying there is a problem of corruption. Then they have two. If i may say so, according to mr modi, did notjust corruption, it is dynastic politics that control a couple of families. Cani that control a couple of families. Can i be honest and say you are a member of one of those families, which he says is Holding Kashmir back. This message is that what he has done is open up kashmir to new investment, it will bring new money into the territory, and in the long run, it will benefit the people of kashmir. Do you not give him some credibility when he talks about investments, infrastructure and modernising kashmir. You spoke about dynastic politics, but like i said, they want to cover up facts and what they spread is fiction through whatsapp universities. They try to distort the reality of, the truth. The fact of the matter is my motherjoined truth. The fact of the matter is my mother joined politics truth. The fact of the matter is my motherjoined politics in 1996, about 20 years ago, so when they talk about family rule in kashmir, i dont know who they are referring to because my mother and gran further my grandfather combined have not been chief ministers from more than five years in the entire lifetime. When they say there is dynastic rule and accuse my family, i dont know what they are talking about. You are saying i should give them a chance, but how can kashmiris give them a chance and have done it without our consent . They are doing this and the truth is they want to engineer demographic changes in what is only muslim majority state inJammu And Kashmir. The argument is a deeply flawed one and it doesnt cut it. You spoke about my mother being in a government with them. We ask them for Power Projects. I dont know if you are but kashmir has a few electricity prices. We produce a312 megawatts of hydropower by the government of india only gives us 13 in one of the things on our agenda was to return these Power Projects so that kashmiris can have electricity like the rest of the cities. But these are things that we re cities. But these are things that were never done. Let me ask you this as we end. Everything you have said about the Indian Government suggest that for me, you for one as a kashmiri have little interest now in trying to build bridges, reach out to development develop a dialogue with delhi. Are you ready to talk to dally about the future of kashmir . Ina dally about the future of kashmir . In a constructive way . What kind of hope can i have from a government that detains nine year old boys that talks having a 60 inch chest . That isa talks having a 60 inch chest . That is a retired they do. But they are scared of nine year old boys. What hope can i have from a government like that . Kashmiris feel, they gravitate, they identified more with someone like imran cannes who really spoke up for kashmiris. His speech went on for about half an hour and kashmiris respect the fact that he spoke up for us, and the tragedy is a72 spoke up for us, and the tragedy is a 72 years after the leash the leadership of jammu and a 72 years after the leash the leadership ofJammu And Kashmir a democratic india, every kashmiri todayis democratic india, every kashmiri today is asking themselves if this was the right choice. Because this country is not gan deposited india anymore. They are hurtling towards the idea of india which crushes dissent, it doesnt have space for descent, which doesnt have space for democracy, which does not want to embrace people of different ethnicities and cultures. I would say that the soul of this country is being assaulted every day. Say that the soul of this country is being assaulted every daylj say that the soul of this country is being assaulted every day. I am sorry to cut you off there, but we have to end. Iltija mufti, i thank you very much for being on hardtalk. Thanks. Good morning. Weve all had our fair share of rain, havent we, just recently . In fact, tuesday, im sure youre now well aware of the flooding rains that we had through the isle of man and the north of england. But they have gradually drifted their way south and east over the last few hours and we are seeing a slow improvement. So the sharp, thundery downpours easing as well in the south east, and they will continue to clear. So by dawn, temperatures are going to be the talking point, not the rain. And in fact, with the northerly wind kicking in, the temperatures falling away quite sharply, so we are going to be greeted with some blue tones on our chart, temperate as close to freezing in places. So, yes, there could be a touch of frost first thing this morning, and, certainly, its going to be chilly start in comparison to of late. So, we start off, yes, on that chilly note, but it will be a dry one with some lovely spells of sunshine coming through and probably the best day in terms of drier, sunnier weather through wednesday. Now, a northerly wind could drive in a few sharp showers up into the far north of scotland, and at the same time, down to the south west, we could pick up a bit more fair weather cloud. And those temperatures really struggling after that chilly start, 11 15 degrees the high, down on where they should be for the early half of october. So, wednesday, a cool day. The blue tones denoting that, but if we look out into the atlantic, around this circulation here, the warmer russets, the winds coming from more of a southerly direction. And within this significant area of low pressure is a lot of tropical moisture, so a little more warmth is set to return. You are probably aware now that this has the remnants of ex Hurricane Lorenzo in it, and its this low thats going to track to the west of ireland and it will bring some wet weather and some pretty rough seas and high tides. That moves across ireland, into Northern Ireland and ahead of it, well see the cloud thickening and the winds strengthening to gale force gusts. But further east, there should be a little more in the way of brighter weather, a little more sunshine coming through from time to time. And temperatures, similar values on thursday to wednesday, were looking at highs of around 11 16 degrees. But its when this low pressure, which is going to track its way steadily eastwards and south during thursday into friday, which will introduce slightly milder air, but it will bring a spell of wet and windy weather before that system slowly starts to ease as it pushes south. Take care. Jammu and kashmir and they cannot deny it. Welcome to bbc news im mike embley. Our top stories hong kong suffers one of its most violent days police fire live ammunition at a protester for the first time. South korea investigates north koreas Missile Launch in the last couple of hours as a possible test of a submarine fired weapon. Pompeo under pressure. The us secretary of states issued a subpoena, the latest twist in the trump impeachment inquiry. Harry and meghan sue the mail on sunday newspaper the prince says the press are vilifying his wife