CM Mufti Now Attacks Abdullah, Says NC Role is "Criminal"

SRINAGAR: In a sharp reaction to Dr Farooq Abdullah's vow of allegiance to the Hurriyat, J&K chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, said it proves the "criminal" role of National Conference in the ongoing civilian uprising in Kashmir.

"His vow of support for the Hurriyat shows that National Conference can go to any extent to grab the chair. There was a criminal element in the situation who burnt schools, targeted vehicles and attacked camps over the past five months. Dr Farooq's statement shows his party was involved in these activities as well and his statement was a signal to his workers to aggravate the situation," Mehbooba said.

"Now that the situation had started improving, schools were opening and tourism was also picking up to some extent, Farooq's saheb's order to his workers to disrupt the situation shows that National Conference can even play with the lives of little children and women to stay in power," she told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

Commemorating the 111th birth anniversary of his father and NC founder, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, Dr Farooq Abdullah had on Monday urged his party workers to stay connected with "tehreek": "I am warning the workers of National Conference: Don't stay away from tehreek. We are part of this movement. We have shed blood for it," he said.

In local parlance, 'tehreek', an Urdu word, is used to describe the political movement against Indian rule that gained ground after New Delhi used its military machinery to deal with the armed insurgency that broke out in early nineties in Kashmir, two years after the rigged elections of 1987.

Mehbooba said the National Conference patron doesn't care for 'tehreek' as he wanted to throw Hurriyat leaders into Jehlum river.

"National Conference has run every type of tehreek in Kashmir to remain in power. Otherwise Omar (Abdullah) saheb was an external affairs minister in BJP government. He attacked Pakistan at national and international forums and also called for declaring it as a terrorist state Farooq saheb wanted to bombard Pakistan," she said.

The chief minister, whose Peoples Democratic Party is in a highly unpopular alliance with the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir and also under severe public pressure to deliver, said such statements only reflect the National Conference's thirst for power.

Meanwhile, asking him to renounce mainstream, senior incarcerated Hurriyat leader and chairman of Democratic Freedom Party, Shabir Ahmad Shah, termed the statement of National Conference (NC) patron as “contradictory” and "dubious".

“During the ongoing Intifada, we had invited the pro-India parties to join the resistance movement. It would be our pleasure if National Conference and its leaders will join hands with us to take the ongoing movement to its logical conclusion. We’ll bury our past differences,” he said in a statement.

Shah asked the National Conference leaders not to look away from the "ongoing bloodshed" in Valley. “You must join hands with us and adopt a clear stand against the Indian aggression and to wipe out the fascist party PDP from the face of Jammu Kashmir,” he said.