Farooq Abdullah Directs NC to "Resist"

SRINAGAR: Stoking fresh controversy, former J&K chief minister Dr Farooq Abdullah Monday sought to lend support to the Hurriyat Conference, asking the separatists to unite under a single banner and "guide this nation on right path".

“I ask these Hurriyat leaders to unite. We stand with you at this hour. Don’t think of us as your adversaries. We are not your adversaries,” Dr Farooq said at the mausoleum of his father, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, here, while commemorating his 111th birth anniversary.

"Mark my words, the fire that has been ignited (following the killing of Burhan Wani) in Kashmir will not be doused unless India and Pakistan do justice with the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. The more they try to control this fire, the more it will spread," he said.

Vilifying the "path" adopted by the separatists over the last two decades of political turmoil in Jammu and Kashmir, Dr Farooq said his party was not ready to tread the “wrong path”.

“We struggled and wasted our whole life for this (political resistance against India). From this sacred place, I am telling you, move ahead, we are with you till you tread the right path. You can guide this nation on the right path,” Dr Abdullah said.

Urging his party National Conference workers not to stay away from the "movement", Dr Abdullah said: "I am warning the workers of National Conference: Don't stay away from tehreek (political resistance). We are part of this movement. We have shed blood for it," he said.

His comments came a day after his son and former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah absolving Pakistan of instigating the current civilian uprising in the Valley.

"Don't be under the false impression that the unrest you are seeing in Kashmir has been ignited by Pakistan. We cannot always blame Pakistan for Kashmir. There should be internal efforts (from the state government)," he said.

Addressing party workers, Omar Abdullah, who was a junior foreign affairs minister in the previous BJP-led NDA government, blamed the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for mishandling the situation in Kashmir by being 'ignorant'.

"We found that some people at the Centre willingly or unwillingly wanted to keep themselves ignorant about the situation in Kashmir. It was easy for them to blame Pakistan," Omar Abdullah had said.

(Cover Photograph BASIT ZARGAR: fresh restrictions in Srinagar)