Stone pelting on PDP president’s cavalcade
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Apr 15: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti today said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is preparing for another Balakote like strike to gain the votes.
Addressing a rally at Bijbehara area of South Kashmir’s Anantnag district, PDP president said that as the BJP has failed in stoking communal rights, they are trying to repeat Balakote type attack.
“BJP has failed in every respect. They tried to stoke communal rights here and polarize society. Then they enacted the drama of Balakote. In the first phase of elections, the BJP is seeing defeat for themselves. Now they have created a sense of insecurity among the people. It seems they want to repeat the Balakote type attack to get votes. Their politics this time is aimed to get votes only”, Mehbooba said.
The former Chief Minister termed Balakote strike as drama, saying an investigation be started into the Pulwama attack that left over 44 CRPF personnel martyred. “I have raised the question over the conditions that lead to Puwama attack. I think there should be an investigation into it so that truth comes out”, she said.
Mehbooba said that whatever the BJP has been doing over the past few months or could do in coming days is in the face of a possible electoral defeat in the ongoing Parliamentary elections.
The PDP president said that her father wanted to cure the pain of the people of Kashmir. “Mufti Sayeed formed this party to take the people of the State from the abyss created due to the presence of Task Force, Ikwan or POTA. After working for the whole day the hearts of Kashmiris are pained by the news of deaths in the evening. Mufti wanted to cure that pain”, she said.
Regarding Arun Jaitley’s remark, Mehbooba said: “When I was in power I was pressurized to ban the Jamat-e-Islami which I refused. Just like the other organization, I think Jamat also has the right to propagate their ideology. Without any evidence against them, I was not willing to take action. What can I do if they are leveling allegations against me?” she asked.
The PDP president said that she fought for the Article 370. “We formed the Government with BJP after they assured us that they would not tinker with Article 370. For two years they did not talk about this. I fought over it in court and with the leadership of BJP”, she said.
“I wish Omar and his grandfather had safeguarded the Article 370 the way I did”, she said.
Earlier, Mehbooba’s cavalcade was pelted with stones in Sirhama village of South Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
She was heading towards Bijbehara to attend a workers’ convention after paying obeisance at Khiram shrine when her cavalcade came under a barrage of stones at Sirhama. She escaped unhurt in the attack but one of her escort vehicles suffered damages.
Police cordoned off the area and provided a safe passage to Mufti who later reached Bijbehara where she addressed a workers’ convention. One security guard was injured in the stone pelting and he was treated at the hospital. Police have registered a case.
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