J&K journal shows Sheikh Abdullah in poor light,probe on

The government was left red-faced because Chief Minister Omar Abdul1lah,who is Sheikh Abdullah’s grandson,had released the special issue.

His father Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy,Farooq Abdullah,had also written the foreword.

Barely a week before the 30th death anniversary of Sheikh Abdullah,the academy has withdrawn circulation of the journal and has instituted an internal inquiry.

The Kashmir Academy of Art,Culture and Language secretary,Khalid Bashir,said the Chief Minister released the special issue in February when Atal Dullo was heading the institution.

“Unfortunately,the controversy erupted now,” Bashir said.

Gohar,who was Sheikh Abdullah’s counsel in the 1953 Kashmir conspiracy case against him,allegedly wrote in his 24-page article that the Kashmiri leader used to read only those lines which were beneficial to him.

Gohar also wrote in his article that Sheikh Abdullah used to spend most of his time in jail,after the 1953 Kashmir conspiracy,tending to poultry.

He also allegedly highlighted how “Sheikh Shahib read a chapter of Mehar Chand Mahajan’s autobiography Looking Back and threw it down,accusing the author of writing absolute lies about the Kashmir accession. Later,he virtually endorsed everything written in Mahajan’s book by copying one of the chapters and putting it in his autobiography,Atish-i-Chinar”.