Ex-PDP MLA Aijaz Mir detained ahead of Shopian farmers’ protest over crop insurance

Former PDP MLA Aijaz Ahmad Mir said he was detained by police at his residence in Zainapora, Shopian, on Sunday ahead of a planned protest demanding a comprehensive crop insurance scheme for apples and cherries. Mir told Greater Kashmir that police locked his gate and sealed roads to prevent him from leaving.

The protest, which Mir called for at Ghanta Ghar, was over weather-related losses after recent hailstorms and windstorms damaged apple orchards across Kashmir. Despite his detention, Mir said the protest went ahead peacefully with hundreds of fruit growers gathering.

PDP leader Iltija Mufti criticised the detention on X as an act of “high-handedness and intolerance”. She said horticulture, the backbone of Jammu and Kashmir’s economy, was suffering losses worth hundreds of crores due to the government’s “apathy” towards farmers. “Our farmers deserve a secure, dignified livelihood,” she said.