Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti on Friday hailed Mamata Banerjee as a “tigress”, adding that the nationwide raids, including those in Bengal, mirrored tactics test-fired in Kashmir.

Equating the raids to the situation unfolding in Jammu and Kashmir for years, Mehbooba pointed out how the Union Territory had become a laboratory for experiments later implemented elsewhere.

Mamata on Thursday dashed to the I-PAC sites raided by the ED and retrieved files, and on Friday led a rally and a public meeting in Calcutta.

“Now the country is tasting it (raids). They had not tasted it before. After Article 370 was abrogated, the majority of political parties (in the country) were silent when raids were taking place here. Three former chief ministers were arrested, but they observed silence. If you open newspapers here, you find 20-25 raids taking place every day,” Mehbooba told a media conference.

“It is happening in Bengal now. But Mamata Banerjee is a brave woman. She is a tigress. She will give a tough fight and will not surrender,” she added.

The former chief minister was addressing the media on the National Medical Commission’s decision to withdraw the permission granted to the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence to run an MBBS course for 50 students in the current academic year, effectively shutting down the college in the short run.

The PDP president said the NMC’s move was a rebuff to the decision taken by the people of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir (in 1947) to join hands with the country despite being a Muslim-majority region.

Mehbooba feared it might emerge as a pattern to be replicated in the rest of the country. “If our youth does not have a place here, a Muslim-majority (region), what will they face in Haryana, Punjab and any other state? If our own home expels our members, what will others do? I fear, God forbid, it is not replicated in other places,” she said.

Mehbooba said lakhs of Kashmiris studying in educational institutions across the country might face the consequences of such a decision.

“If some communal people... took out protests and forced the NMC to take a wrong decision, it will encourage others. There will be some Bajrang Dal men, some followers of Godse, who will take out a protest that Kashmiri Muslims are studying somewhere. Who can stop it?” she asked.

Hinting at a “nexus” between chief minister Omar Abdullah and the Centre, she said: “Omar Abdullah hinted that the Centre might close down the college. The very next day, the de-recognition order came.”