Soz: J-K to probe poll ‘sabotage’

Congress leader Saifuddin Soz today said that the Jammu and Kashmir government will investigate Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh’s charge that police tried to sabotage the elections and punish the guilty.

Addressing a public meeting in Fatehgarh village in north Kashmir, Soz said: ‘‘We know some of these officers. These people are the worst criminals. The police superintendent of Kupwara was virtually campaigning for the National Conference and had to be removed by the Election Commission.’’

Another 3 released

Jammu: Continuing with its drive to release political detainees, the J-K government has freed three more leaders held under the Public Safety Act.Bashir Ahmed Bhat of the JKLF, Sheikh Abdul Rasheed of the Hurriyat Conference and Abdul Rahim Wani, a district president of the ruling PDP, were released from the Kot Balwal jail near Jammu yesterday, official sources said. — Agencies Story continues below this ad

Former chief minister Farooq Abdullah has threatned to sue Lyngdoh if he fails to substantiate his claim.

Soz, a former NC stalwart, lashed out at the party for its ‘‘politics of opportunism’’. ‘‘My stand was vindicated a number of times after I voted against BJP government and later left the National Conference,’’ he said. Soz’s was the only vote in the no-confidence motion which brought down BJP-led government at the Centre in 1999.