Stoking another controversy, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, who is also the contestant for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, today alleged that some of the stone-throwers were “probably paid by the government”.
“You don’t have to generalise the situation. There are many stone-throwers who are probably paid by the government and want to create a situation so that people don’t come out and vote. The government must investigate such things,” he said.
The senior Abdullah said this here after paying obeisance at Bibi Chand Kour Gurdwara to wish Sikhs on Baisakhi festival.
A few days ago Farooq had drawn flak from several quarters after he had termed stone-throwers of Kashmir as nationalists.
To a question on why he didn’t consider the sentiments of the rest of the country before issuing such a statement, Farooq angrily said, “What do you mean by sentiments of the nation? Don’t you think they (stone-throwers) have grievances or are you only bothered about the sentiment of the nation? Is the nation concerned about them and their future?”
“We have a government here for the past two years and where is that government today. When we left there was around 29 per cent participation of people (in the election) and today it is 7 per cent. Who is to blame?” asked Farooq.
Farooq, however, appreciated the role played by the CRPF in Kralpora, Budgam, where they were heckled by some unidentified persons. “It was very unfortunate and tragic. I am grateful to the CRPF man who didn’t react and kept calm. That was very good. Had he reacted, the situation would have probably become nasty,” he observed.
PDP rejects NC chief’s allegations
Srinagar: PDP spokesman Mehboob Baig has strongly rejected the allegation levelled by NC president Farooq Abdullah that the youth in the Valley were being used by the PDP to enforce election boycott by luring them with money. In a statement, Baig said such a statement does not behove the stature Farooq Abdullah was enjoying. He said in 2010 also such a weird and baseless allegation was levelled by NC against PDP, but not an iota of evidence was provided to substantiate the charge.
