Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter Iltija Mufti on Friday suggested India has turned into a “Lynchistaan”, claiming that intolerance was rising in the country and those criticising lynchings in Bangladesh were silent when such things happened here.

“Not India or Bharat nor Hindustan. Thy name is Lynchistaan,” Iltija said on X, posting an article on a 19-year-old Bengali Muslim migrant labourer, Juyel Sheikh, who was reportedly lynched in Odisha after being labelled a Bangladeshi.

Iltija’s mother, PDP supremo and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti who heads the Peoples Democratic Party, also launched a diatribe against the country’s judiciary, alleging it has been thoroughly politicised.

Mehbooba on Friday addressed a media conference to react to the recent Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court decision, blaming her of misusing courts to meet her political ends. She was also asked to react to her daughter’s comments.

“We have been saying that intolerance in the country has increased. Lynchings are happening. What is happening in Bangladesh hurts us but those who are criticising it keep their mouths shut when such lynchings are happening in front of them,” she said.

The PDP chief said there were three cases of harassment of Kashmiri shawl sellers in Himachal, Uttarakhand and Haryana in the last 72 hours. Videos showed Rightwing activists forcing them to chant certain slogans, beating them up when they refused to do so.

Referring to the recent high court verdict dismissing her PIL seeking transfer of Kashmiri undertrials lodged in jails outside back to Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba said much of the judiciary in the country was politicised. The court had accused her of dragging the judiciary into “partisan” political agendas.

“This is not the business of the judiciary to cast aspersions on my character. As a politician, it is my right to raise every question,” she said.

A division bench of Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal recently said her petition was unsubstantiated and politically driven, and failed to meet the legal standards required to entertain it.

The court accused Mehbooba of filing the PIL with an “explicit purpose of garnering political advantage and positioning herself as a crusader of justice for a particular demographic”.

The former chief minister said the verdict was regrettable and surprising, asking that if “every Tom, Dick and Harry can file a PIL, why not a politician”.

“The high court forgets that politicians are connected with the ground. As a politician, I know what kind of hardships poor people face. They can’t even go meet their family members in jails (outside). How can they fight their cases?” she asked.