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Mehbooba dubs NC-Cong govt 'youth eaters'
Condeming the killing of a youth in police firing on Friday, the opposition PDP has described the ruling National Conference-Congress government in Jammu and Kashmir as 'youth eaters'.
Condeming the killing of a youth in police firing on Friday, the opposition PDP has described the ruling National Conference-Congress government in Jammu and Kashmir as 'youth eaters'.
In a press conference on Saturday, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti also demanded that the government withdraw all cases against Kashmiri youths.
"We condemn the killing of Farhat Ahmad Dar during protests against arrests and filing of cases against youths (by police) in Sumbal area on Friday," she said.
"During our regime, the same police and the same administration were working under Mufti Sahib (former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayed) but we just had a single case where one person died in police custody,"' Mehbooba said.
"So many youths have been killed in the past five-and-a-half years that the government seems like a man-eater or a youth eater," she said.
The PDP leader said the killing of Dar should awaken the government "out of its slumber" to withdraw all the cases filed against youths for holding protests from time to time.
"If someone is killed in a cross-fire, there is some sort of justification but what was the justification here,"' she added.
Dar, 18, was killed on Friday allegedly when security forces opened fire to chase away a violent mob that tried to set afire a police vehicle during protests after Friday prayers in Bandipora district.
Mehbooba also raised the issue of suspension of 67 students from Meerut, saying the state chief minister asked them to `rethink about their attitude as they were studying under PM's scholarship programme," she added.
She alleged that the ruling coalition had appointed officers (police officers) at the behest of politicians.
"We have come to know that the (security) agencies wanted an experienced officer in Bandipora in view of the district being sensitive and coming elections. But the present officer was appointed against that recommendation at the behest of a local leader and the result is for everybody to see. The Election Commission should look into the matter," she said.
SEEKS CENTRE'S HELP FOR SNOW-HIT HORTICULTURE INDUSTRY
Meanwhile, Mehbooba appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to help the horticulture industry which has suffered losses due to the unseasonal snowfall recently.
She said demanded a compensation package for the farmers of Kashmir on the lines of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Accusing the state government of being insensitive to the problems of the people caused by the snow calamity, she said the response of the government has "varied between cruel, insensitive and comic interludes."
Mehbooba said while the state government offered a helicopter to evacuate the injured persons from avalanche-hit Kulgam district, adequate efforts were not made to rescue a man who was trapped in a landslide for hours.
"Manzoor Ahmad Mir (who died in a landslide on Jammu-Srinagar Highway) called police and his family for help from his mobile phone. He was trapped in landslide and police just threw a rope for rescue,'' she said.
"Elsewhere, so much effort goes into saving lives of animals trapped during natural calamities and here the government could not save a man crying for help for over 24 hours,"' she added .
