Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday said that the arrest of her outfit’s youth wing President Waheed Parra was “emblematic” of the situation of Kashmiri politicians. She claimed that leaders from Kashmir were being “persecuted” by the Centre for not toeing its line.

In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Mufti posted a photo of Parra in his childhood, saying that he was interested in politics from a young age.

“Today the very same system that he placed his faith in is going after him with a vengeance,” Mufti tweeted. “Waheed despite being in illegal detention lasting a year fought & won DDC [District Development Council] elections from jail. Even after a strong bail order by NIA [National Investigation Agency] court he was re-arrested by CIK [Counter Intelligence Kashmir] on unknown charges.”

Parra was detained by the Jammu and Kashmir Police last month, immediately after he received bail from a National Investigation Agency court in a separate terror funding case. He was sent to police custody by a Jammu court. This was after the NIA court observed that there was no reference to Parra in the original as well as the supplementary charge sheets presented by the investigation agency, in the earlier case. While in custody, Parra also won the Pulwama-1 seat in Jammu and Kashmir’s District Development Council elections.

On Wednesday, Mufti claimed that the arrests were made out of political vendetta.

“Not having any proof to substantiate these charges, GOI [Government of India] is on a spree where Waheed is arrested by one agency after another,” she tweeted. “It is sheer political vendetta & an attempt to sabotage the life of a young & promising 32 year old man.”

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister then went on to suggest that Kashmiri politicians were on one hand “disliked and mistrusted” by the locals for their faith in the Constitution and “punished” by the Centre on the other hand.