Early Times Report
JAMMU, Aug 28: There are interesting scenes being witnessed at Centaur Hotel nowadays as leaders of different political parties have been kept under the preventive custody there since August 5.
In order to prevent any further disturbance in law and order situation in the already violence infested region, the Jammu and Kashmir government kept various political leaders in Centaur Hotel, turning the otherwise a known tourist attraction located on the banks of world famous Dal lake into a makeshift prison. Senior mainstream leaders including NC's Ali Mohd Sagar, Mubarak Gul, Ab Rahim Rather, PDP's Khurshid Alam, Naeem Akhtar, Abdul Rahman Veeri, Sartaj Madni, Farooq Andrabi, Peoples Conference leader Sajad Lone, Imran Ansari and former IAS officer Shah Faesal are at present detained inside centaur hotel.
However, what is interesting is that there are heated arguments and debates gaining momentum inside this make shift jail. As per the reports, the detainees are all day busy falsifying the claims of each other, striving to prove how the other party was always wrong and how the state is bearing the brunt of the its wrong doings for centuries.
The arch rivalry between NC and the PDP is not hidden from any one. They have been for decades targeting each other with choicest abuses and barbs. Now when the leaders of both the camps have been kept under one roof, one was expecting a thaw in their approach. However, on the contrary, the two sides seem to have only intensifying their animosity. "These could be mere discussions on Kashmir as there is nothing more for them to do. They keep discussing history and what went wrong and where. There is also a possibility of discussing the future strategy. There is nothing more that they can do there," a relative of one of the politician divulged.
As are also confirmed reports making rounds in the summer capital that there has often been Paam Paam or verbal jibes being casted against each other by the leaders of PDP and national conference. "I have heard that these leaders have left no stone unturned to target each other even in the jail. One is accusing the other of being responsible for all the mess. Since 1947, never were the politicians in such troubled times as are now. This has soothed us and relieved us as they were taking the common people for a ride. Meeting the seedy looking commoners used to be nothing less than a torment for them," says an old city resident in Srinagar.
Meanwhile, the government has clarified that it has no proposal in hand to free the detained leaders from custody as they were jailed only to prevent them from instigating people for violence and score brownie points.
The government has also stated that the leaders of the mainstream political parties have been kept under preventive custody by the union home ministry and that the Raj Bhavan has no role in the entire process. |
