The Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) today demonstrated against state government's decision to withdraw cases against "anti-national and subversive elements" in the Valley. JKNPP chairman and former minister Harsh Dev Singh led the protest by party activists at Exhibition Ground and also set ablaze an effigies of state leaders of the BJP, accusing the ruling coalition partner of placating the "secessionist forces" for saving its alliance with the PDP. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday had said her government would examine and assess the cases of youth against whom more than one cases are registered, after announcing withdrawal of such cases against 9,000 youth last month as a goodwill gesture towards disenchanted Kashmiri youth. "It was a shot in the arm of subversives and anti- national elements when Mehbooba ordered the withdrawal of cases against stone pelting youth who have been involved in anti-national activities," the JKNPP leader told reporters. He accused the BJP of "bowing before the dictates of the PDP" which instead of taking punitive action against "anti- national elements preferred to toe separatist agenda". "It was the same BJP which in opposition sought sedition charges against stone pelters dubbing them as Pakistani agents and charging them of facilitating infiltration besides safe passage to militants," he said. Dubbing the state government's policy of "appeasing the secessionists as downright abuse to the national sentiment", Singh alleged that the subversives were glorified where as the martyrs and the nationalists were "humiliated, disregarded and ignored". He said the saffron party had proved to be a "traitor" and owed an explanation to the people of the country for its "change of heart over the appeasement of anti-nationals" in Kashmir.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)