Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday accused the government of borrowing a leaf out of the militants’ textbook to force relatives of separatists to disassociate themselves from the cause through public notices in newspapers.

The accusation has come after Ruwa Shah and Sama Shabir, daughters of two separatist leaders, in purported public notices rejected the separatist ideology and swore allegiance to the Indian State.

During the 1990s, militants had forced hundreds of activists and leaders from the pro-India camp, mainly from the National Conference, to distance themselves from India and swear allegiance to “azaadi”.

“Kashmir witnessed a time when gun-toting militants threatened & forced political workers to disassociate themselves from the mainstream or face dire consequences,” Mehbooba posted on X.

She added: “Today that pattern is being repeated & what makes it even more disturbing is that the role is being played by the state itself. They are harassing families of separatists. Not even sparing their daughters to peddle propaganda by making them disown their families.”

The former chief minister claimed the government continues to feel paranoid despite a “brutal crackdown and suppression”.

“Shameless is an understatement for such cowardly actions,” she said, suggesting the two were doing it at the behest of the State.

The government has neither reacted to the notices nor to Mehbooba’s allegation.

The public notice by Ruwa, daughter of separatist Altaf Shah and grand-daughter of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, had come over a month after she met director-general of police R.S. Swain during his pubic outreach programme, also called Police Public Darbar, at Baramulla.

Sources said she had complained before the DGP that her passport had been impounded.

Sama is the daughter of jailed separatist leader Shabir Shah, who is in Tihar jail.

Ruwa and Sama, in their public notices, said they were “loyal citizens of India” and were “not affiliated with any organisation or association” which has an agenda against the Union of India.

Both said they owed “allegiance to the Constitution of my country”.

The two have since neither denied nor accepted they had authored the notices.