The Peoples Democratic Party on Monday hit back at Centre over the issue of release of Hurriyat leader Masarat Alam. Party sources said law and order is a state subject and there is no need to inform Prime Minister’s Office for everything.
While addressing the Lok Sabha on the issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Alam was released by Jammu and Kashmir government without informing or consulting the Centre. Modi made the revelation while intervening in the discussion on Alam’s release which saw the opposition unitedly targeting the Centre for what it called was an “anti-national” decision of the Jammu and Kashmir government.
Modi assured opposition that there was no compromise on the unity of the nation and the government would take necessary action soon.
In Srinagar, Masarat Alam said: “Mufti Sayeed should not try to take political mileage out of it. I was released through a normal legal procedure since my Public safety Act (PSA) detention was about to end in the next two to three days.”
“What difference does it make if one person is released when there are thousands languishing in jails,” he adds while denying that he had been responsible for the killings of youths during the 2010 unrest in the Valley.
“It was Omar Abdullah and not me who is responsible for those killings,” says Alam.
Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani says India should accept the fact that Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory and not a part of India. Calling Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s praise of Hurriyat as a mere political stunt, Geelani opined that there will be no change in Kashmir.
Taking a jibe at the BJP, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah says a CM has to be trusted to decide what is in the interest of his/her state. On microblogging website Twitter, Abdullah says: God knows I hold no brief for Mufti Syed but a CM has to be trusted to decide what is & isn’t in the interest of his/her state. And if you can’t trust a CM to decide what is right then it’s better to dispense with state governments & govern from Delhi directly.
Devender Singh Rana of National Conference says everything which is happening in J&K is as per mutual understanding between BJP-PDP. It is clearly a script written much before oath taking ceremony, adds Rana.
Another Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala urges the PM to not shed crocodile tears. The PM should rather form concrete policy against anti-national elements, opines Surjewala.
A defensive government came out in full strength to firefight after the controversial decision by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to release Alam rocked Parliament on Monday.
Alam was the mastermind behind the 2010 protests in which hundreds of people lost their lives. He was later arrested on the orders of the then Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah.
