Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti can be seen sitting together in the function in Srinagar Express Photo by Shuaib Masoodi 15-08-2015In a joint appeal, People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti and National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah on Monday expressed dismay over the attacks on Kashmiris across the country and urged the Centre to ensure their safety and security. The joint press conference comes in the wake of the deadly terror attack on CRPF convoy in Pulwama which killed 40 jawans last week.
“It doesn’t augur well for a democratic country like India to hound its own people in its response to the heinous attack on our forces. Hounding innocent Kashmiris will indisputably disenchant them, the humiliation, suspicion, isolation will push innocent Kashmiris to the wall. As a country, we need to stand together in this hour of grief and sorrow and not allow forces inimical to unity in our country to find any space” Mehbooba and Omar together appealed.
The two former chief ministers underscored the need to maintain communal harmony across the country. In their appeal, the leaders asserted that by attacking, terrorizing, intimidating Kashmiris, the youngsters of Kashmir are implicitly being told that they have no future outside the valley.
“Intimidating Kashmiris is aimed at creating a wedge between different communities in India. We should not allow the terror to divide us. By using such incidents to divide us, we fall into the trap of those behind the attack on CRPF soldiers. We are wittingly or unwittingly playing to the tunes of our enemies,” Mehbooba & Omar said
The leaders asserted that attacking innocent people because of their ethnicity or religion is no way to honour the sacrifice of the CRPF men. “Kashmiri Muslims or the Muslims of Jammu didn’t attack our CRPF jawans, terrorists did. This violence is a convenient tool used by some to shift the blame. Let us unite against terror, let’s not allow terror to divide us,” they said.
They maintained that it was tragic to see educated and civilized people spearheading vicious propaganda to paint Kashmiris and terrorists with the same brush. “The thought behind such attacks is to divide us. Our pain must not fuel such diabolical plans because eventually the axe forgets and the tree remembers,” they added.
Expressing dismay over the continuous rhetoric being used against Kashmiris, the leaders said, “No mainstream political party will condone terrorism. The ferocity of the rhetoric by certain media channels is also dangerous. They churn lies, hatred and divisive agenda by berating the national interests.”
Both the leaders urged the political dispensation and civil society of Jammu to ensure that cooler heads prevail.
