PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Monday alleged that the BJP government had insulted National Conference founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah who worked for accession of the only Muslim-majority state to India.
Mufti made the remark apparently in reference to the dropping of ‘Sher’, a popular moniker of Sheikh Abdullah, from the Kashmir International Convention Centre. Recently, the government “silently” dropped the title ‘Sher’ from Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) in government’s official press releases eliciting harsh reactions from NC leader Omar Abdullah.
On a question about wife of JKLF chief Mohammad Yasin Malik’s wife being made special advisor to Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, Mehbooba said Mushaal Mullick was not a terrorist.
“I am not an advocate for Mullick but she is not a terror convict. Her husband Yasin Malik is. What is the government doing with Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah? The BJP needs to understand this. They are dishonouring Sheikh sahib who worked for accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India,” the PDP president told reporters here.
Reacting to Mehbooba’s statement, J&K BJP spokesperson Altaf Thakur said that appointment of Mushaal Mullick as the minister in PoK assembly was Pakistan’s “traditional policy of glorifying terrorists and terror”. “Mushaal is the wife of Yasin Malik, who is facing life sentence for his involvement in bringing gun, killing Kashmiri Pandits, and promoting street violence in the Valley. The PDP chief should introspect and stop advocating and provoking people on Pakistan’s agenda. She should also stop speaking Pakistan’s language,” Thakur said.
{{/usCountry}}Reacting to Mehbooba’s statement, J&K BJP spokesperson Altaf Thakur said that appointment of Mushaal Mullick as the minister in PoK assembly was Pakistan’s “traditional policy of glorifying terrorists and terror”. “Mushaal is the wife of Yasin Malik, who is facing life sentence for his involvement in bringing gun, killing Kashmiri Pandits, and promoting street violence in the Valley. The PDP chief should introspect and stop advocating and provoking people on Pakistan’s agenda. She should also stop speaking Pakistan’s language,” Thakur said.
{{/usCountry}}On Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s claim that China had seized Indian territory in Ladakh, Mufti said it was a claim made by the locals of the area, not Gandhi.
“China has entered Indian territory and grazing land has been put off limits for the people of Ladakh. China has occupied 1,000 sq km of this grazing land. This is not what Rahul Gandhi is saying but what people of Ladakh are claiming,” she said.
“So many rounds of talks have failed so far to push China back,” the former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister said. Mufti also hit out at DPAP chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad for his saying that most Indian Muslims were converts from Hinduism.