KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
National Conference president and former Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah hailed the initiative taken by right wing Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) veteran Yashwant Sinha in meeting the caged resistance leadership in Kashmir.
Chairing a party meeting at NC Nawa-i-Subh headquarter here, Dr Farooq said, “I’m personally very much happy.”
“I have huge expectations from such meetings and in such crisis Kashmir is facing, any initiative like one taken by Yashwant Sinha, is highly commendable,” he told the NC meet.
On Tuesday, former Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha led a five-member group to Srinagar and held closed-door meetings with incarcerated Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
Sinha has asserted that he and his group colleagues do not represent government of India which was confirmed later by a top Union Home Ministry official and a spokesperson of BJP.
“I hope Yashwant Sinha led delegation will present true picture of Kashmir in New Delhi and a solution to our issues is found,” sources quoting Dr Abdulla as having said.
Earlier, National Conference workers led a protest march to Chief Minister Ms Mehbooba Mufti’s Fairview residence at Gupkar. The NC activists castigated PDP-BJP government for its “anti-people” attitude. They asked for release of those behind bars and immediate halt to arbitrary arrests and raids and ransacking and deferment of examination for tenth and twelfth classes.
Top sources in NC said that Dr Abdullah observed that “missing contact with people at ground zero has added to miseries”. “Establish contacts and heal wounds of our people,” he told the senior party colleagues.
He referred to three-month long shutdown and curfew. This, he said, “has created economic break down.” “Traders and transporters are facing massive losses,” he added.
On the issue of holding examination, Dr Abdullah ridiculed the step taken by J&K Education Ministry by “converting jails and police stations in to examination centres”.
“The steps should have been taken as how to mitigate sufferings of those behind bars,” he said, “and the priority should be to release the persons arrested since July 09, 2016.”
Dr Abdullah, sources added, will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in coming days. On Tuesday, he led an NC delegation to Governor N N Vohra where he vouched for political initiatives on Kashmir and castigated J&K government for ‘systematically’ eliminating minorities in Jammu region.
