New Delhi: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has written to the director of the Enforcement Directorate, expressing concern that the Central investigation agency is being used to target her, her family and politics.The letter, a copy of which has also been marked by the People’s Democratic Party chief to the secretary in the Department of Revenue and to the Union Home Secretary, is titled ‘ED’s Roving Inquiries’. In it, Mufti alleges that the ED has been summoning various persons from Kashmir, possibly in connection with the case numbered ECIR/16/HIV/2020.She wrote that the “only common thread connecting these persons” appeared to be their acquaintance to her, her family or her politics in one way or another. “The questioning of these persons is also focused on myself, my personal, political and financial affairs; my late father’s grave and memorial, my sister’s finances, home construction, my brother’s finances and personal affairs etc.,” she added.The letter sent by Mufti to the ED.Mufti, who was kept under detention for a long period by the Centre following the reading down of Article 370 in the state in August 2019, also referred to how “not very long ago, a key person of the PDP, who has now been returned successful by the people of Kashmir in the DDC elections, Waheed Para was arrested by the NIA in what appears to be a non-existent case around the dates of the elections.”The National Investigation Agency (NIA) in late November had arrested the People’s Democratic Party’s youth wing president Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra in connection with a purported case related to militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.Mufti has been vocal since her release. Her party has joined the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), an alliance of seven parties in Jammu and Kashmir which seek the restoration of the erstwhile state’s special status. In the letter, she further wrote that on the eve of the DDC election results, several of her relatives and party leaders were also kept in unlawful detention by the state administration.Mufti added that “the use of the Enforcement Directorate against political opponents is not an unknown device for a party in power at the Centre.” In her tweet announcing that she has sent his letter, she writes, the ED is an “agency being weaponised as a tool to hound political opponents by the ruling party.”My letter to the Director of ED, an agency being weaponised as a tool to hound political opponents by the ruling party. pic.twitter.com/MgEG6bINzL— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) December 31, 2020“I wish to notify you that as a responsible citizen and politician, a former chief minister and member of Parliament, and the daughter of one of the most illustrious public personalities in this country, I am ready and wiling to face any questioning by any agency. But I will insist upon the legitimacy of the process,” she wrote.Mufti also alleged sustained electronic surveillance. She said: “I have understood that mobile phones and personal digital devices of some of the persons summoned in connection with the aforesaid ECIR have been seized by or at the behest of the ED, or by intelligence agencies coincidental with the summons issued by the ED.”Highlighting Section 21(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, Mufti also reminded the agency about the “constitutional right to privacy, the right to democratic politics and indeed the right to due process” of the parties concerned.She added, “This is further to put you on notice that if you intend to question me or examine my electronic or digital devices, or those of the members of my family, you shall only do it in the presence of myself or my representative and under the supervision of an impartial/judicial authority.”Finally, Mufti cautioned the ED that “if there is any breach of what I consider to be the norms of law, good conduct and constitutionalism, I shall not hesitate to take the matter up legally and politically.”Earlier this week while addressing party workers in Srinagar, Mufti had accused the BJP government at the Centre of employing investigating agencies like the National Investigation Agency, Enforcement Directorate and the CBI to suppress and intimidate political opponents.A fortnight ago, ED had attached assets worth Rs 11.86 crores of another former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, Farooq Abdullah, in connection with the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) money laundering case.The ED attached three of Abdullah’s houses at Srinagar, Tanmarg and Sunjwan and land owned by him in four different places in the state. The ED has claimed that between 2006 and 2012, Abdullah took advantage of his position in the JKCA, made illegal appointments and then gave the appointed people financial powers in order to launder JKCA’s funds.Abdullah’s son Omar had called the ED’s allegation “baseless” and had expressed wonder as to how ancestral property could be seen as proceeds of “crime”.Abdullah too had reacted strongly to the allegations and claimed that he would not bow before the politics of Bharatiya Janata Party. “They think Farooq Abdullah will bow before them. I will only bow my head before my god and no one else. He is my creator. They are trying to induce fear, but they do not know Farooq Abdullah. I am the Sher-e-Kashmir’s (National Conference founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah) son,” he said.Like Mufti, Farooq and Omar Abdullah too had been put in detention by the state administration in 2019 following the removal of special status of the state.