Srinagar: Hitting out at the centre, National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah on Thursday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silent over targeting of Kashmiri students in various parts of the country.
“All over the country, but especially in some areas, an entire population is being maligned. Our students outside the state, with no connection to politics, are being targeted and expelled. This is nothing but a conspiracy. Why is the Centre silent on it,” Mr Abdullah, who is the former chief minister of J&K, asked in a press conference here on Thursday.
“PM Modi wants detractors of a train to be punished, but says nothing about people targeting innocent Kashmiris. He clearly has his priorities wrong,” Mr Abdullah said while referring to Mr Modi’s statement that people mocking the newly launched Vande Bharat Express should be ‘punished’ for ‘insulting’ India’s engineers and technicians.
He said talks with Pakistan cannot be held in the backdrop of attacks such as the one in Pulwama last week that left 40 CRPF jawans dead. “Our PM has talked about a ‘muh tod jawab’ (befitting reply), but such a reply is not possible in the current situation,” Mr Abdullah said.
“I would like to tell the PM that elections will come and go, but, if you are ready to sacrifice an entire population for the sake of elections, it will be very unfortunate,” he added.
Hitting out at the Congress, the NC Vice President said not just the ruling party and the PM, but even the opposition has been absolutely silent on this issue.
Mr Abdullah also demanded that the students who were forced to leave their education and return to Kashmir in the wake of Pulwama attack be taken care of. “I would request the Governor that the students, who had to leave their colleges, hostels in other states, should be ensured safety. Their education should be taken care of,” he said.
He said the students should be accommodated in colleges and universities here till the situation improves and talks on sending them back to their colleges could be re-initiated.
Referring to Meghalaya Governor’s tweet advocating boycotting Kahsmiris, he said the people of Kashmir are being alienated. “No one spoke of an economic boycott of Chhattisgarh when incidents targeting forces took place there. Will we be punished for being a Muslim majority state?” he asked.
Terming the withdrawal of security to mainstream political players as “hugely regressive”, he demanded that the decision should be reviewed.
“Till the time attacks like Pulwama continue to take place, conditions would not be favourable for peace talks. If Imran Khan feels that Kashmir issue can be solved through dialogue, then he should help us,” he said while asked about his opinion on the Pak PM’s offer to solve Kashmir issue through dialogue.
