Mehbooba, Omar slug it out

Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah and opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti have locked horns over his posts targeting her on microblogging website Twitter.

Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah and opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti have locked horns over his posts targeting her on microblogging website Twitter.

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Mufti, who is not on Twitter, has hit back, terming the National Conference leader ‘juvenile’.

Abdullah took a jibe at Mufti for travelling to New Delhi on Tuesday, when a group of 18 PDP legislators faced the ire of locals in Sopore over the death of Nazim Rashid, 28, allegedly in police custody. Locals pushed and shoved the PDP leaders, threw stones at their motorcade and did not allow them to enter Rashid’s house to express solidarity with his family.

“PDP’s version of leading from the front — send the MLAs to face the stones & get yourself on a plane to Delhi (sic),” Abdullah wrote on Twitter.

Mufti, who wanted to visit Sopore after Rashid’s death on Sunday, had been intermittently placed under house arrest. She went to New Delhi to see off her daughter, who was flying to the US for higher studies.

Abdullah tweeted, “What’s the bet that if the PDP president had expected flowers to be thrown she’d have gone herself!!!!!! (sic)”

Mufti retorted on Wednesday: “Abdullah is trying to reduce the latest tragedy in Sopore into a farce through his juvenile responses.”

Meanwhile, Sopore, 55 km north of Srinagar, observed shutdown for the fourth day following Rashid’s death and was supported by people across Kashmir.

Schools and business establishments across Kashmir Valley remained closed and most vehicles stayed off the roads.