Disapproving the continued imposition of curfew, harsh restrictions and brutal force, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Saturday said the Jammu and Kashmir government was punishing everybody for its own incompetence and atrocities.
In a statement released here on Saturday, party president Mehbooba Mufti said the mass imprisonment of people and unleashing of force to punish peaceful mourners and protesters had become a standard practice of the government, while it continued to generate anger and cynicism against the system in which it claimed to be functioning.
"Afzal Guru's hanging, Sonawari killings and before them the 2010 murders on the streets of Kashmir, all followed the same pattern," Mehbooba said.
Condemning the politicisation of even the response to the killings, Mehbooba said a high-level delegation of the PDP, led by its general secretary Thakur Balbir Singh, was intercepted and not allowed to proceed to Gool area of Ramban district. "Other political leaders have been arrested or imprisoned in their homes. This is being done while ruling politicians are free to move in the area," she said.
"Our delegation was going only to visit the families of the victims and convey the party's condolences, but the government is feeling threatened even by such routine gestures of sympathy from the opposition parties," Mehbooba said.
{{/usCountry}}"Our delegation was going only to visit the families of the victims and convey the party's condolences, but the government is feeling threatened even by such routine gestures of sympathy from the opposition parties," Mehbooba said.
{{/usCountry}}The PDP president said on the one hand the government was tight-lipped over the killings in Gool and on the other it was paying just lip service to the victims, which was reflected in the passing of a condemnation resolution by the state cabinet.
Mehbooba said the iron wall erected around every house in the state to prevent people from coming out was no solution to the situation created by it. She said the situation was a direct result of the coalition government's complete dependence on police and security forces after its failure on every other front of governance.
She said the range and scale of protests from Ladakh to Jammu region should serve as an alarm for the state and the central governments run by the UPA constituents about the deterioration they had brought about in the state.
"Instead of taking note of the sentiments of people in the wake of the Gool atrocities, the chief minister has intervened only to correct the casualty number, forgetting in the process that a large number of injured persons have suffered bullet injuries but have somehow survived," she said, adding that there were reports that the injured were not getting proper treatment.
Mehbooba said there were reports of highhandedness of police and security forces from various areas of the state and people were being prevented from offering prayers in the holy month of Ramzan. She said that on Friday while main mosques remained sealed in Ganderbal, people of the constituency represented by the chief minister were prevented from using microphones even for Azan.