Jammu jamboree missing in Valley of fear

National Conference president Omar Abdullah’s rallies in downtown Srinagar today were affected by the killing of two party workers by m...

National Conference president Omar Abdullah’s rallies in downtown Srinagar today were affected by the killing of two party workers by militants in the heart of the city.

Omar, who was to address a series of rallies at the Shia-dominated Alamgari Bazaar, Shalimar and Habba Kadal, had to cancel them after unidentified gunmen killed Ghulam Rasool Mir and Ali Mohammad Dar at the busy downtown localities of Jamalatta and Kokerbazar.

But by the time the news of the killings came, Omar had taken out two rallies at the Dal Lake and Hazratbal. However, sources said, he was quite disappointed with the turnout and left for Jammu in a huff.

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Admitting that there were few supporters at today’s rallies, a senior NC leader said the people in the city were frightened to join electioneering. He said the killing of the two party workers had dampened the supporters’ spirits.

Only a dozen-odd boats participated in the Dal Lake rally, from Nehru Park to the Mir Behri locality. And going by NC standards, the Hazratbal rally too was a let-down.

Omar was scheduled to hold rallies at Alamgari Bazar, Shalimar and Habbakadal in the afternoon but had to cancel his plans for the day. At Alamgari Bazar, the sitting MLA for Zadibal, Sadiq Ali, managed to mobilise only 500 supporters. The show warmed up when Shia religious leader Aga Rooh-ul-lah, who is in the fray in Budgam, attracted a few thousand people.

Ali said they were deliberately lying low in the city because ‘‘we don’t want to expose our workers’’. He claimed this year alone the NC has lost 550 workers, including 12 top leaders.