Guns have been the cause of destruction in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), National Conference President, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, said on Monday, while addressing a political rally in North Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
Recounting his removal in 1984 as chief minister of the state, Abdullah said, "When I was dismissed as chief minister in 1984, the late Abdul Gani Lone came to meet me at home. As we talked, Lone said he was going to Pakistan to bring a gun, but I warned him about the serious consequences of doing so and the destruction that a gun could bring about, and we saw what happened later.”
People, children, and elderly were killed by guns, added the former J&K Chief Minister who lost power in 1984 when a faction led by his brother-in-law Ghulam Mohammad Shah broke away from the National Conference and took over as CM with Congress (I) support when Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister.
“After his return from Pakistan, Lone approached me and said, ‘Farooq saab you were correct: Pakistan does not love Kashmiris and merely wants the land.’ Later, Mirwaiz Moulvi Farooq was also killed by pistols," Dr Abdullah said at the rally.
The then Mirwaiz was shot dead by terrorists at his residence on May 21, 1990.
Lone began his political career as Congress member and later founded the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference (JKPC). A moderate voice of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), an association of various political, religious organisations espousing the cause of Kashmiri Independence, he was assassinated on May 21, 2002, by two men shouting pro-Pakistan slogans at an event in Old Srinagar’s Idgah to observe the twelfth death anniversary of Kashmiri leader Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq.
Though Lone’s son and JKPC leader Sajad Lone, now contesting against Abdullah’s son Omar Abdullah in the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency (going to polls on May 20), had accused another separatist leader Syed Shah Geelani and Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence for the assassination, he had later criticised Dr Abdullah, also CM of J&K then, for not providing adequate security to his father.
At the rally, Dr Abdullah said he was feeling “ashamed of the fact that the Prime Minister (Modi) considers those people Indians here who would try to disintegrate India in the past," indirectly taking a jibe at Sajad Lone.
On other matters, Abdullah expressed happiness over the improved polling numbers and thanked people for coming out and casting their vote.
Referring to the recently completed delimitation exercise, he said it was not in public interest; and that the whole exercise was divisive and does not benefit the people.
"Anantnag is associated with Poonch and Rajouri. How can an MP do justice to both regions when the Mughal road is only open for four months?" asked the former Chief Minister.
His party, Abdullah said, had "accepted Gandhi and Nehru's India, not Modi's India… Modi claims that Muslims are not from this land, but he has forgotten that we have lived in this country for centuries."
"The National Conference has never bowed down to anyone, and it will not, no matter what. We have always stood for the people since the founding of our party," Abdullah said.
Visiting this border area for two days, he is set to address an election rally in Karnah on Tuesday.
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