STATE TIMES NEWS
SRINAGAR: Opposition National Conference on Thursday launched a scathing attack on Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti over her remarks claiming that the security forces were unaware of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani’s presence at the scene of the July 8 encounter. “She released lakhs of rupees as reward money from the CM’s secret fund for those who took part in the encounter”, claimed National Conference Provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani.
Earlier on Thursday, the Chief Minister had said, “How can one know everything about every encounter? “As far as I know, what I heard from the police and the army, who said they only knew that there were three militants inside the house but did not know who they were.” Reacting to this statement, Nasir claimed, “It is ironic and ridiculous that the Chief Minister is terming Burhan Wani’s killing a coincidence while simultaneously having released lakhs of rupees as reward money from the CM’s secret fund for those who took part in the encounter.”
He said, “if Mehbooba Mufti is deluded into thinking that she can try to make a case that she was not aware of the encounter where a special team was dispatched from Srinagar to neutralize Burhan, she is living in her usual fool’s paradise”. “On the one hand, the Chief Minister claims that she was not informed of the encounter, and then she discloses it was a coincidence.
“This is a cruel joke from a completely clueless CM,” he said in a statement.
The National Conference leader lashed out at Mehbooba for what he called her continued “theatrical tendency to lie, deflect responsibility and spread canards” as the head of a government that remains “invisible, ineffective and unmoved” by dozens of killings and mass grieving in the Valley.
Wani also condemned the “insensitive and inappropriate” statement from Director General of CRPF supporting the continued use of pellet guns despite their “disastrous” implications that have resulted in the blinding and maiming of hundreds of young boys and girls in the Valley and termed the State government’s “conspicuous silence” on this development as “shameless”. “Are we living in a democracy or are we living in an Orwellian (tyrannical) system where the security forces and paramilitary forces will decide on policy matters?
“The Union Home Minister has already failed all expectations in this matter by choosing to not order a ban on pellet guns and now this has clearly emboldened other voices that remain unmoved at the sight of our blinded young boys and girls”, Wani said.
