Srinagar: Following CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami, the National Conference President and former J&K Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, spoke about the situation emerging in Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, referred to as Azad Kashmir by the Pak establishment.
Addressing a function here, senior Abdullah questioned the “silence” of the central government over the situation in Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK).
Earlier, Tarigami, the first politician from J&K, had spoken about the issue, condemning the killings in PoJK.
The NC president said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar should raise the issue.
“Since they keep saying so much that it (PoJK) is our part, so if it is your part, then why don’t you talk about it?” Abdullah said.
“I have spoken about this many times. I have appealed that the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) should go there and see what their difficulties are. They should try to address those difficulties,” Abdullah told reporters here.
The former Union minister said he has not heard of any statement from the Centre calling for an end to the violence in PoJK.
“Why don’t they say whatever is happening there should stop? I haven’t heard anywhere. I don’t know if you have heard it or not. I have not heard any statement from them on it,” he said, adding if PoJK is part of India, “why don’t they talk about it? They are not talking”.
Meanwhile, Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday said the government must keep its promises to the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), otherwise the campaign could grow.
“If they (government) do not fulfill the promises they have made, and (revoke) FIRs, (if they do not) stop harassing those who provided food and water there, who took care of them (protestors), they (government) started persecuting them and their families, then this campaign will grow even more and bring a change,” he said.
To a question about a policeman firing AK47 rounds on protestors in Bihar, the NC chief said, “Everyone knows this, and you must have heard what the president of All India Student Association (Neha) has said. This will not stop. Children have stood up against it… they will take it forward.”
Abdullah refused to comment on the apology tendered by PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti over her recent remarks at the Jantar Mantar justifying the use of force against Kashmiris.
“I do not want to say anything about it,” he said.
When asked about the PDP chief announcing protests on August 5 (the anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370), Abdullah said: “Please, it is her job; she can do what she likes”.
To another question about Mehbooba Mufti alleging that the NC had signed on the death warrants of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, who was hanged inside the Tihar Jail on February 9, 2013, and JKLF founder Maqbool Bhat, who was hanged on February 11, 1984, Abdullah said, “Let her say whatever she wants”.
“I will not say anything about Mehbooba. Let her say whatever she wants,” he said.
He pointed to a maxim in his school, “they say what they say, let them say what they say, for they say what they say”, to not respond to what the PDP chief said.
Asked about the reported remarks of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha that 90 percent of the 5,000 hotels built in the last six years in Kashmir were “illegal”, Abdullah said he should be grateful that the hotels were built to accommodate the tourists visiting the valley.
“Be grateful that they were built. Tourists come here. Where will they stay? I have also seen that time when they used to sleep in taxis, they used to sleep in cars. They used to sleep on the road. There was no space. Thank God people stood on their own feet, and they did not look for government jobs,” he added.
