Adil Lateef
Srinagar, July 11: National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah today apologized to Amarnath yatris after a deadly militant attack left seven of them dead yesterday evening at Anantnag district of South Kashmir, saying terrorists have no religion and urged men and women of country to keep calm.
Speaking at his parents’ mausoleum on 17th death anniversary of Begum Sheikh Abdullah, the NC president said the attack was not been done by the Muslims of Kashmir and those terrorists who killed yatris cannot be Muslims. “So, I want to tell the people of the country, do not accuse us (of the attack), we are not responsible of it. In fact, we want that you come here in large numbers the way we visit many shrines in the country.
“On my own behalf and on the behalf of the people here, I want to apologise to you for this attack and want to tell you that we are not the ones who kill people. We have always shown love and are still showing it today. Even today, when a yatri comes here, it is the Kashmiri Muslim who carries his baggage. The pony wala is a Kashmiri Muslim,” Farooq said in his address to the party leaders and workers.
He said the people of Kashmir are sad today because of the attack on yatris, “who came here for darshan (glimpse) of their God and will continue coming”.
“There is religious freedom in this country. Many people want to curb this religious freedom,” he said and regretted that there was no shutdown in Kashmir to protest the killings unlike Jammu. “The communalism in India is on the peak again and it can devour us all. This attack is an example of communalism. Regretfully, when the people in Jammu today called for a bandh, the people in Kashmir should also have because this attack is on the religion,” said the NC president.
Quoting a couplet of legendry poet, Dr Sir Mohammad Iqbal, Farooq said “Islam does not preach animosity, we are natives of India and India is our country”. He said that today the animosity is being created in the country and “this attack is taking us towards that animosity”.
Pinning hopes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the NC leader said: “I hope our leader of the country will try to get rid of this communalism and will not let any such thing to happen by which an innocent Muslim or a Hindu loses his life.”
The former Union Minister said “Islam teaches us brotherhood and we will continue that”. “I want to tell those people in India who are trying to spread communalism, that we are no communal, you are. I regret that they never loved us. You loved our land but not the people. The day you learn to love us, the situation will not remain like it is. Try to love and join hearts. Were the Muslims not at the forefront of the war (of Independence) against the Britain? Did the Muslims not sacrifice their lives? We were never against your God and will never be. Quran teaches us to respect religions,” Farooq said.
Later talking to reporters, the NC president said that those forces who have done yesterday’s attack are the ones who want to create communal trouble in the nation. “I think it is one of the biggest tragedies we the people of Kashmir are facing. We are not communal. We are peace loving. We want to progress and these people want to stop our progress,” he said.
Farooq expressed sympathy with the families of killed yatris and also with the injured who are in the hospital. He expressed hope that people in the nation will come in larger number to this State” so that people who want to do these things get a message that we are not afraid, that we can come as we will want to come”.
“We want them to come and we have always welcomed them and we will continue to welcome them with all our hearts and all our blessings,” he said.
With regard to security arrangements, the NC president said it is unfortunate that with all the arrangements that were done and deployment of additional 20,000 troops the incident took place. “The Government of the day must look inside and see where their failures are and try and see that these failures are not happening again,” he said, adding that the people of Kashmir and rest of the country should love each other to defeat forces behind yesterday’s attack.
In reply to a question about repercussions of the attack, Farooq appealed for calm and asked yatris to come in more numbers. “I hope that nothing happens. It is not we who have done this. It is those who have no religion. Terrorist has no religion and therefore, I would appeal to every man and woman in India please remain calm and pray for the souls of those who are dead and pray for those who are in hospital to get well and may we continue to live in better circumstances. But come in larger numbers so that these forces are defeated,” he said.
Asked whether Government has failed to protect yatris, the NC president said: “I don’t think today is the time when I have to comment on that. Today is a sad day for all of us.” However, he added that “whenever NC was in power, no attack took place on the yatra”. “I regret to say this that they (Government) were boasting of adequate arrangements (for the security of the yatra). Where were those arrangements yesterday? Where was that (security) grid? Where were the 20,000 additional forces which could not save the yatris? We get awakened after such acts take place,” he said.
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