A post going viral on social media platforms claims that Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party (JKPDP) leader and former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, married her father’s younger brother (here, here, here, and here). In this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Mehbooba Mufti married her father’s younger brother (Chacha).
Fact: Mehbooba Mufti married Javed Iqbal Shah in 1984. She later divorced him and is currently living separately. Javed Iqbal Shah’s father is the maternal uncle of Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, who is Mehbooba Mufti’s father. Therefore, Javed Iqbal Shah is Mufti Muhammad Sayeed’s first cousin (brother-in-law), and before their marriage, Mehbooba Mufti was Javed Iqbal Shah’s niece. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
To verify the accuracy of the viral claim, we conducted a relevant keyword search that led us to an article published by ‘News 18 Hindi’, which provides details about Mehbooba Mufti’s personal life. According to the article, Mehbooba Mufti married Javed Iqbal Shah, who was her uncle, in 1984. Javed Iqbal Shah was her father’s first cousin. Later, Mehbooba divorced Javed Iqbal Shah and is currently living separately.
Upon further search, we found a video of Javed Iqbal Shah, where he explained his relationship with Mehbooba Mufti’s father, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed while speaking at the ‘IndoiAnalytics’ conclave in 2019. Javed Iqbal Shah stated (archived link) that Mufti Muhammad Sayeed was his first cousin and that his father had cared for Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, as he was his maternal uncle. From this information, it is clear that Javed Iqbal Shah was Mufti Muhammad Sayeed’s brother-in-law, and Mehbooba Mufti was Javed Iqbal Shah’s niece before their marriage.
To sum up, the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, did not marry her father’s brother. She married Javed Iqbal Shah, who is her father’s cousin. In relation, she was Javed Iqbal Shah’s niece before their marriage.
