STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir Minister Sajjad Gani Lone, former separatist leader, on Tuesday tore into Congress in the Assembly, accusing it of being responsible for killings in the Valley for decades and now “indulging in theatrics” over deaths that took place during unrest last summer.
Sajjad also countered opposition attack over use of pellet guns which have been responsible for widespread injuries, saying it was the National Conference government which had introduced these weapons for mob control in the Valley. “Nawag Rigzin Jora (CLP Leader) has started a new term of unholy alliance and those whom you (Congress) mug down in last 40 or 50 years where holy. Do you have any account how many people have you killed, if there is any political party which is number one in terms of killings, is Congress”, he said in J&K Assembly on the debate on Kashmir situation here. Taking a dig at the opposition NC and Congress, Sajjad said, “I don’t think that the opposition has a bit of sorrow for those who were killed instead they are score settling.” He said “My only request to the opposition is let us not treat those killed as ornaments, … Who likes killing their own people. We are not security experts, it is they (Opposition) who brought the pellet guns and in an emergency they were issued and police had to used them”. “The point is that if pellets were brought why did you bring it, did you bring it to play Holi”, he added. Hitting out at Congress for denial of passport and visas to him and his children, Sajjad said “I will tell you a personal thing, I am thankful to the BJP, I am saying it personally, I am thankful that they (Congress) did not give me passport for 10 years, they did not give Visa to my children, you come here and talk about human rights, you don’t have”. “The BJP government came, God bless them, they not only gave me passport but visa to my children. You talk of communal riots but …One thing I will tell you about Congress, that be it corruption or communal riots you top in both”, he said.
He blamed the opposition of “indulging in theatrics over the killings in Kashmir.”
“The NC and Omar Abdullah had to cross thousands of dead bodies to reach here, be it 1987 or 1996. Are you saying that those killed when NC is not in power are more sacred then the ones killed when NC was in power,” Sajjad said.
