Omar Abdullah takes swipe at Mufti over Kashmiri Pandit township issue
National Conference working president Omar Abdullah, on Thursday took a dig at Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed’s stand in the state Assembly on townships for displaced Kashmiri Pandits, going back on his last month’s categoric assertion that he will build segregated clusters for them.
As soon as Sayeed finished his statement on the floor of the state Assembly, Omar, former Chief Minister of the state, tweeted, “Will someone please remind Mufti Sb about his answer given to me during Gov. Address discussion regarding Jagti type townships in the Valley (Sic).”
“He was categorical in his assertion that it is the intention of his government to build segregated townships for Pandits rather than integration,” Omar posted in another tweet.
Sayeed, while replying to the motion of thanks on Governor’s address in the state Assembly, had said his government will construct Jagti-type flats for Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley when Omar had sought a clarification about return of KPs.
A senior National Conference leader took a jibe at PDP saying ever since the party has come into power “we have only seen series of somersaults. Be it Armed Forces Special Powers Act, state flag and now pandits.
“At this rate we may see PDP competing at Olympics in gymnasium field,” the leader said.
Yesterday Omar had expressed his opposition to state and central governments’ plans for building “composite townships” for Kashmiri Pandits saying no one will support “ghettoisation” in segregated and “inherently unsafe camps” in the Kashmir Valley.
In a series of tweets, Omar had made it clear that “no right- minded Kashmiri will oppose the return of Kashmiri Pandits to their homes in the Valley.”
He had expressed doubts if many Pandits will like the idea of separate townships.
“I very much doubt very many Kashmiri Pandits would like to return to the Valley just to be housed in ghettos, segregated and isolated,” Omar had said in another tweet.
He had said his party would do everything possible to support the return of Pandits to the Valley “in keeping with our composite culture and Kashmiriyat.”
The reactions from Omar came a day after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had asked state Sayeed to identify land for creating composite townships for 62,000 displaced Pandit families who had left the state at the onset of militancy in early 1990s.
Sayeed had assured that the state government will soon acquire land for creating “composite townships” for them.
