Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today countered the charge that the opposition was not taken on board during last year’s unrest, saying she had tried to contact National Conference leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah but failed.
She said in the Legislative Assembly that she had called Omar but was told that “he would call her back. And I waited but the call never came.
“I also called Farooq (Abdullah) sahab when he returned from London after his treatment and again I was told that he will call me back but again no call came.”
Mehbooba was countering the charge by Omar, her predecesor, that he was not taken on board during the unrest.
Apparently referring to the 2010 unrest that took place during NC-Congress rule, she said Omar was fortunate as his father was there to defend him to say that ‘my son is there in Kashmir fighting the Pakistan for India’.
The Chief Minister, whose resignation was demanded by the National Conference for adopting a “casual” approach and taking “wrong steps” to control the situation during the unrest, said after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter, she had asked the police and security officials to take caution and impose curfew.
“When I got the phone call that Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter, I asked the police and security agencies to exercise caution that it was expected that people would come out to attend the funeral. I asked them to impose curfew. If someone is to be hanged, it is told in advance and security apparatus can be put in place but when this encounter took place, the security forces were busy in managing Amarnath yatra,” she said.
“People came out from places where it was unexpected. Over 50 police and security camps were damaged and 215 such incidents took place. I asked for restraint but there were certain elements who pushed the children inside and then themselves escaped and small children became the target,” she said.
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