BLUNT BUTCHER
JAMMU: National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah does not sound inspiring while attributing the Nagrota terror attack to ‘irresponsible statements of senior Union Ministers of the BJP’. He says, “The ministers in their statements post the surgical strike (29 September 2016) had provoked Pakistan by saying now it will not dare target India”. By this logic, how would Omar Abdullah sum up the 2nd January 2016 Pathankot terror attack, which was carried out just a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made unscheduled and unannounced goodwill trip to Lahore on 25 December 2015 to greet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief on his birthday? There was no provocation to Pakistan at that point of time but still the rogue nation responded cowardly in Pathankote, similarly as it did in Kargil after Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee took bus Yatra to Lahore. Incidentally, during both these treacherous attacks, India had BJP Prime Ministers and Nawaz Sharif ruled Pakistan. Backstabbing is in Pakistan’s DNA, which people like Omar Abdullah don’t want to reconcile with.
By the logic advanced by Omar Abdullah, should the killing of four pilgrims and three security guards in a terror attack at Raghunath Temple, Jammu on 30th March 2002 be attributed to the provocation of Dr Farooq Abdullah’s statement as Chief Minister on 20 October 2001? According to national daily Hindu (21 October 2001), Dr. Farooq Abdullah, had once again reiterated the need for retaliatory action against militant organisations operating from across the border. “If the United States can strike Afghanistan after the September 11 air attacks, why cannot we take action against terrorists operating from Pakistan..” As a true nationalist, Dr Abdullah had declared, “Our capacity of tolerance has exhausted. Now is the time for retaliation with full vigour and vitality and we should destroy the training camps in PoK.” He was advocating far serious surgical strikes which the India has carried out in September 2016, reference to which by BJP ministers is seen as provocation by Omar Abdullah.
Unlike many politicians in Kashmir, Omar Abduallh is seen as a serious leader in the Valley who weighs words before speaking them out. Will he provide any alibi to Pakistan for carrying out terror attack on Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in Srinagar on 1st October 2001 resulting in the deaths of 38 innocent civilians; attack on Parliament on 13th December 2001, killing seven security personnel; blasts in Akshardham Temple on 24th September 2002, consuming lives of 31 devotees and serial blasts in Mumbai trains on 13th March 2002 when he himself was Minister of State, External Affairs in the NDA government, led by Atal Behari Vajpayee?
What is Omar Abdullah’s take on most gruesome killings, engineered by Pakistan and committed by its lackeys in Kashmir, when Dr Farooq Abdullah headed the government in Jammu and Kashmir between 1996 and 2002? He needs to explain on whose provocation terrorists kidnapped and killed seven Kashmiri Pandits in Sangrampora, Kashmir on 21st March 1997, massacred 23 Kashmiri Pandits, including infants, women and children, in Wandhama on 25th January 1998, shot dead 18 members of a Hindu family in Pranakote village of Udhampur district on 17th April 1998, assassinating 20 guests at wedding at Champnagri mountains of Doda in June 1998; killing 15 persons including eight women in a terrorist attack in Doda district on 19th July 1999; massacring 34 Sikhs, after segregating them from the residents and forcing them out in Chattisingpora, Kashmir on 20th March 2000 and selectively killing 48 persons at the base camp of Shri Amarnathji Yatra at Pahalgam on 1st August 2000.
These being some of the barbaric terror acts in Kashmir, how does the former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah view all these attacks across the country by Pakistani Jihadis. He must not be unaware about 257 were killed in Mumbai blasts on 12th March 1993; 33 in Brahmaputra Mail bombing on 30th December 1996; 46 in Coimbatore bombings on 14th February 1998; three during attack on Red Fort on 22nd December 2000, 52 in car bomb blasts in Mumbai on 25th August 2003, 70 in three powerful blasts in New Delhi on 29th October 2005; 21 in three terror attacks on Shri Sankatmochan Mandir and Varanasi Cantonment Railway Station on 7thMarch 2006; 37 in Malegaon mosque on 8th September 2006; 68 in Samjhauta Express bombings on 18th February 2007; 13 in Mecca Masjid Hyderabad on 18th May 2007; 42 in two blasts in Hyderabad Lumbini Park on 25th August 2007; 63 in nine bomb blasts in Jaipur on 13th May 2008, 29 in seven blasts in Ahmadabad on 26th July 2008; 21 in five blasts in Delhi on 27th September 2008; 171 on 26/11 in Mumbai; 17 in Pune bombings on 13th February 2010; 18 in Mumbai serial blasts on 13th July 2011. In addition, how many people have died in Jammu and Kashmir during bombings, blasts, carnages and selective killings is numberless. To quote few, 15 Hindu passengers were massacred in Kishtwar on 14th August 1993. Who had provoked these terror attacks, Mr Omar Abdullah?
Playing to galleries is a norm and favourite pastime of so-called mainstream leaders in Kashmir but in pursuit of addressing a particular constituency Omar Abdullah has inadvertently admitted Pakistan’s role in Nagrota terror attack, which Islamabad denies. And, no wonder the Kashmiri separatists will claim this cowardice act as ‘bravado’ of indigenous ‘freedom fighters’ or ‘Mujahids’.