Farooq Abdullah’s comments on Pakistan and Kashmir draw flak

Farooq also mentioned the Chittisinghpura massacre in which 36 Sikhs were killed in south Kashmir.

SRINAGAR: National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Saturday declared that Pakistan had “saved” Kashmiris by keeping the issue alive at international forums, while being careful to say that “otherwise their (Pakistan’s) intentions are not good”.His statement drew flak from BJP, which slammed it as “seditious and anti-national”.“If you do not remain (committed to NC), you will be erased. Even our identity will disappear. Nothing will be left. They are silent today because there is noise in the world and our neighbour is constantly behind it. Everywhere they say ‘the decision regarding Kashmir has not been made’. That is what is saving us…,” Farooq told a meeting of NC workers in Baramulla. The words “they” and “their” were seen as an allusion to the Centre.Farooq’s son, J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah, had not reacted to his father’s remarks till late Saturday.Farooq urged NC workers and legislators to remain loyal to the party, whether in power or not, as he touched on a range of issues in his speech. “Hold on to the truth. Speaking the truth is not easy, but unless you remain truthful and stand up for what is right, your future will never be secure,” the veteran said.Citing the 1947 tribal invasion, Farooq condemned the “atrocities” inflicted on Kashmiris by the raiders from Pakistan”. He paid tributes to Maqbool Sherwani, an NC worker who died staving off the intruders, saying his “sacrifice helped stop the raiders in Baramulla and save Kashmir”.Farooq also mentioned the Chittisinghpura massacre in which 36 Sikhs were killed in south Kashmir on March 20, 2000, during then US President Bill Clinton’s visit to India. He said a subsequent judicial inquiry had found that five men accused of carrying out the killings were not the perpetrators but shopkeepers “who had been picked up by police and killed”. According to Farooq, the inquiry judge should have investigated the massacre itself but was “told from Delhi” not to.

BJP decried Farooq’s comments. Party functionary Ravinder Raina called them “treason” and asked how Pakistan could ever be a well-wisher of the people of J&K. “Farooq Abdullah chose Baramulla for his pro-Pakistan remarks just two days after the anniversary of Pakistan’s Oct 22, 1947 invasion of J&K. This is the land of Maqbool Sherwani, who stood against invaders, not a stage to whitewash Pakistan’s bloody history,” J&K BJP spokesman Sajid Yousuf Shah said.Peoples Conference’s Imran Reza Ansari cautioned against following Farooq. “If a common Kashmiri speaks in a similar tone, govt will in seconds put that person in detention under PSA or UAPA. Please save your children and your families. Don’t emulate this person,” Ansari said.