Neha
JAMMU, Aug 23: The ruling National Conference (NC), which has all along sought to polarize the society on communal lines to strengthen its vote bank, is not interested in restoring peace in Kishtwar district, which witnessed gory incidents on August 9 and remained under curfew for more than 12 days. It wants the situation to deteriorate further so that it could play its dirty politics and divert attention of the people away from its acts of omission and commission. If what NC additional general secretary Mustafa Kamaal said at party headquarters in Jammu on Thursday is any indication, then one can surely say that the NC could play a mischief to arouse passions to promote its agenda.
What did Kamaal say while addressing senior office bearers at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhawan, Jammu, on August 22? He reportedly said that the "recent incidents of violence at Jammu and Kishtwar were instigated at the behest of communal elements in the BJP, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal and separatist groups". Not just that, he also said: "Eye brows are being raised at the absence of a local MLC of PDP on the day of Eid-ul-Fitr who chose to remain in Srinagar on this fateful day when communal violence erupted in Kishtwar".
In other words, Kamaal held the BJP, the VHP, the Bajrang Dal, separatists and the PDP responsible for the August 9 incidents. To be more precise, he equated the BJP, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal with separatists and votaries of self-rule. It is for the BJP and the PDP to respond to what he said.
What, however, was clear from what Kamaal said was that he did not agree with the victims of the violence that the trouble at Kishtwar on that day was the brainchild of votaries of Greater Kashmir and anti-national elements. It is now also established that many anti-social elements, who possessed arms, petrol bottles and lathis, had on August 9 violated the law of the land and attacked members of the minority community. It was also clear from the eyewitnesses' accounts that certain elements in the administration did not act when the anti-social elements struck in Kishtwar to promote their seditious and communal agenda. But controversial Kamaal doesn't give any credence to the clinching evidence about the involvement of anti-national elements in the incidents. Indeed, by pointing his fingers towards the BJP, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, Kamaal has simply rubbed salt on the wounds of the minority community, thus creating a situation that could provoke people of the minority community to come on to the streets and hold protest demonstrations to ensure that the real culprits are booked and brought to justice. |
