Srinagar, Jul 27: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday questioned PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on how she justified the use of force against Kashmiris during the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protests at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi.
Speaking to reporters, Omar said that she surely had not gone to Jantar Mantar for Kashmir. “She did not go to Jantar Mantar for Jammu and Kashmir. Why did she go there? She would be in a better position to explain the intent” he said.
Omar questioned Mehbooba on how she justified the use of force against Kashmiris. “What she said there – the wrong use of force, arrests, and justifying such actions by claiming there is militancy in Kashmir -how is this justified?” he asked.
“Should the law of the land not be implemented here because there is militancy? Does militancy mean that youth should be denied justice? Does militancy mean that passports should be stopped? How is this justified?” Omar asked.
Accusing her of “not forgetting the habit of saying one thing in Kashmir and another in Delhi,” the Chief Minister said she seemed to have made such statements only to please certain people.
The CM said Mehbooba should have apologized for her statement. “When she realized that her remarks were wrong and that people had not taken them in the right way, she should have apologized. It would not have diminished her stature had she admitted that the statement was made emotionally and expressed regret,” Omar asserted.
Omar said that she had rubbed salt into the wounds of the people of Jammu and Kashmir by dismissing the remarks as an AI-generated video. “Rather than tendering an apology, she rubbed salt on wounds by telling people through one of her MLAs that it was an AI-generated video. Are we fools? The media of the entire country was present there, and the microphones of news channels are clearly visible in the byte. There is not just one reel; there are many reels. It is very unfortunate,” Omar said.
Omar further said that Mehbooba did not apologize for her past actions and remarks, including the controversial Doodh-Toffee (Milk-Toffee) comment. “You did not apologize for the BJP accord in 2015. You did not even express regret for the 2016 situation, let alone an apology. You spoke of ‘Doodh-Toffee’ and repeatedly justified it,” he said—(KNO)
