Delhi alone can’t resolve Kashmir Issue need to engage all including separatists: Farooq Abdullah

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah has reminded Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh that the issues in Kashmir cannot be resolved unilaterally by New Delhi and sought engagement with all shades of opinion in the Valley.
“Putting Hurriyat leaders under house arrest or detention will precipitate the already fragile situation rather than solving anything,” former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah said.
Farooq, who is the opposition NC-Congress candidate contesting against the ruling PDP in Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency, was speaking at a joint election meeting of the NC and Congress in Ganderbal today.
The NC president slammed PDP for unleashing an unprecedented crackdown on separatist leaders at the behest of their masters in New Delhi. He said separatists were as usual proceeding on their way to Pakistan Embassy in New Delhi to attend the Pakistan Day celebrations but the action of the government to put them behind bars would further compound the stalemate in Kashmir.
Farooq Abdullah recounted numerous instances of betrayal perpetrated by the PDP leadership in different avtaars and said PDP came to power in 2002 by promising those brandishing guns that the party would be their voice in the Assembly. He said when late Mufti Mohammed Sayeed became the Chief Minister in 2002, he sent out an open message to militant commanders during a public meeting in Ganderbal that their role had ended as the PDP had come to power. “However, soon after taking over the reins of administration, the then Chief Minister unfolded the hidden agenda of their masters in New Delhi and made the militant commanders and cadre the first targets,” he said.
Mocking PDP’s much-abused slogan of “Goli Se Nahi Boli Se”, Farooq said they made innocent youth fodder of their cannons. “PDP is aligned to such forces, which are persecuting Muslims across the country by tainting them as anti-nationals,” he added.
Addressing the gathering, senior Congress leader Tariq Hamid Karra said he begged late Mufti Mohammed Sayeed for almost a year to not to align with the BJP but he didn’t relent. He said his pleas of the BJP perpetrating mayhem with Muslims in Gujarat were ignored for sharing the loaves of power.
Karra added that Mufti Mohammed Sayeed facilitated the entry of the BJP into Kashmir and the RSS cadre was feeling elated over their success in making the Valley a target of their venom.
The former MP cautioned against the threat of continued presence of the BJP in the government and said the people would have to give a decisive mandate to Farooq Abdullah from Srinagar and Ghulam Ahmed Mir from Anantnag in the byelections. Senior NC leader and MLA Kangan Mian Altaf Ahmed recounted the oppression unleashed by the PDP-BJP coalition government over the people during the 2016 unrest.