Mufti govt taking undue advantage of youth: Omar

National Conference chief Omar Abdullah today criticised the Mufti government’s surrender policy saying the state administration was ta...

National Conference chief Omar Abdullah today criticised the Mufti government’s surrender policy saying the state administration was taking ‘‘undue advantage’’ of unemployed youth of the state.

‘‘The recent reports of fake surrender by militants in Kashmir Valley only shows how publicity-hungry the state government was…,’’ Omar said on the sidelines of the 100th birth anniversary of his grandfather and the founder of National Conference Sheikh Abdullah.

He said the Mufti government was only taking ‘‘undue advantage’’ of unemployed youth and termed it a ‘‘deliberate ploy’’ for gaining publicity in media. ‘‘This move can be counter-productive and the Centre should take an immediate note of such developments,’’ he added.

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Asked about the recent cases of alleged troop reinduction in Kashmir, Abdullah said ‘‘if such a thing has really been happening then I demand that the Mufti government come clean immediately. If they fail to provide a plausible answer, then I would raise this issue in Parliament,’’ he said.

‘‘Apparently there are reports of millitants surrendering before the J-K police whose bonafides do not match up. This is not a lapse of security. I think this a deliberate ploy,’’ he said.

Lauding his grandfather for his ‘‘administrative acumen and secularism,’’ he said it was only under the tenure of the ‘Sher-E-Kashmir’, as Sheikh Abdullah was popularly known, that the landless people were given plots to till.

Omar said Sheikh Abdullah never got any recognition from the Centre. ‘‘We have a road in Delhi in almost anybody’s name, but do we have one to commemorate Sheikh Abdullah,’’ he asked.

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Noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani, also present on the occasion, alleged the Kashmir issue would have been solved but ‘‘for the Indian leadership’’.

Congress calls for ‘stern action’

		• The Congress has called for stern action against those who had allegedly stage-managed the surrender of 27 people as militants in J-K. ‘‘Whosoever they may be, whichever party they may belong to, stern action must be taken against them,’’ Congress spokesperson Girija Vyas said. ‘‘Our PCC president has been making the requisite inquiries. But it sounds a little incredible that such a thing could happen at the block level,’’ AICC J-K in-charge Ambika Soni said. MoD silent • The Defence Ministry has remained silent on the fake surrender while the Army’s Northern Command chief has ruled out a probe. Though the Ministry did not reply to a short questionnaire sent by Express earlier this week asking if the MoD was planning to set up an inquiry, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee has indicated that he would comment at an ‘‘appropriate time’’. —ENS

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