4 min readJammuMar 29, 2026 01:57 PM IST
First published on: Mar 29, 2026 at 07:01 AM IST
People’s Conference chief Sajad Lone Saturday condemned the recent attack on former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, drawing a painful parallel with the assassination of his father Abdul Ghani Lone in 2002.
“Halan ki jab main jahan khara hota hoon, to apne baap se gadari bi karta hoon thori si (However, when I stand here in the Legislative Assembly, I also confront my father a little bit),” Handwara MLA Lone said during a debate on the assassination attempt on Abdullah earlier this month, raising concerns over the politicisation of security by successive governments in Jammu and Kashmir. He described Abdullah as “one of the most colourful and dynamic human beings I have seen in politics in Jammu and Kashmir”.
“I do not want to score points, but if we do not learn lessons in these matters (of security) then we will never learn,” he said while participating in a discussion on the recent attempt on Abdullah’s life. “Some 20 members of this House have been martyred over the decades, including my own father,” he said. “Whenever there is an attempt or an assassination, our wounds get opened and the entire film plays back again. Death is inevitable and everyone has to die, but death by violence never leaves you.”
Referring to the assassination of his father in May 2002, Lone said: “The day my father died, in place of the Lt Governor, it was (then chief minister) Farooq Abdullah,” he recalled. “Everybody knew that he would be killed. In the market too, the talk was that he will be killed,” he said, adding that his father had felt helpless.
Ideological differences should never be a reason to deny security, he said.
“Just because there are ideological differences, shall we allow a person to get killed? That is the big question that we will have to ask ourselves,” he said.
Recalling the immediate aftermath of his father’s martyrdom, Lone said he was not allowed to join his last journey.
“The next day, we had to bury him at the very place where he was killed – (NC leader) Mubarak Gul Sahab’s constituency (Eidgah Assembly constituency), just 100 feet from where he was shot. (NC leaders) Choudhary Mohammad Ramzan came, Shafi Uri, Sahrief-ud-din Shariq and (CPI-M’s) M Y Tarigami came, but that government did not give me security to go there,” he said.
“I asked for a few policemen for protection, but the government refused, saying that they would be at risk and might also be killed,” he said. “There must be thousands of sons across Kashmir who have faced similar anguish.”
Referring to the lapses in Abdullah’s security that led to the assassination attempt, Lone said all successive governments have used security for political ends.
“Whatever today’s government is doing, all earlier governments have done it too. That is a reality,” he said. “We should pledge that there must be no compromise on security. And if anyone says we have not misused it, they are lying. Every government has used security for political ends.”
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah narrowly escaped an assassination attempt on March 11 when a man fired at him during a wedding function in Jammu’s Greater Kailash area. The assailant managed to get close and fire, but Abdullah’s security team intervened and thwarted the attack.
The incident triggered serious concerns over a breach of his Z+ security cover, with leaders across party lines condemning it.
"I asked for a few policemen for protection, but the government refused, saying that they would be at risk and might also be killed," he said. "There must be thousands of sons across Kashmir who have faced similar anguish."
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