Omar calls for dissolution of Assembly, fresh elections in state

KASHMIR ISSUE CANNOT BE ADDRESSED THROUGH OPERATIONAL, MILITARY MEANS

21/06/2018

SRINAGAR, Jun 20: The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference said today that dialogue, internally as well as externally, was imperative for the resolution of political issue in Kashmir as it could not be addressed through operational and military means.
"Dialogue, internally as well as externally, is imperative and the political issue in Kashmir as well as the ensuing crisis cannot be resolved through operational and military means," National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah said in a statement here after a meeting of the party's core group.
The meeting was called by Omar to discuss the prevailing situation and recent developments in the state.
Jammu and Kashmir was today placed under Governor's rule for the fourth time in the last one decade after the BJP withdrew support to its alliance partner PDP, prompting Mehbooba Mufti to resign as the chief minister yesterday.
The NC leader said there should be zero-tolerance for human rights violations and the fundamental rights of the people should be upheld at all costs.
"The foremost concern should be to provide relief to the people of the state through a reconciliatory rather than confrontational approach and to work towards creating a peaceful, positive atmosphere in the state," he added.
Omar said Mehbooba Mufti's government would be remembered for its "ruthless, anti-people legacy that fuelled alienation in the Valley through its iron-fist approach" to deal with widespread disenchantment and disillusionment that was stoked by the PDP's glaring ideological U-turn to remain in power.
He said the PDP's approach to deal with recurring crises in the Valley was "an approach of denial, persecution and insensitivity evidenced by her silence on glaring human-rights violations" where youths were used as human shields and mowed down by vehicles in stark contrast to the hollow rhetoric of the former chief minister.
Omar said his party has sought the dissolution of the state assembly to thwart attempts and plans of horse-trading as this would result in further erosion in the credibility of the democratic process and institutions in the state.
He reiterated the party's stand that it would neither seek support nor offer support for government formation in the state.
National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah today called for immediate dissolution of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly and holding of fresh elections in the state.
In a surprise move, the BJP yesterday pulled out of the three-year-old ruling coalition with the PDP in the state that was placed under Governor's rule this morning.
"The J&K state assembly should be dissolved immediately & fresh elections should take place as soon as appropriate. The former DCM has admitted that BJP can't be trusted not to horsetrade for Govt formation (sic)," Omar tweeted.
The former chief minister was reacting to BJP leader and former deputy chief minister (DCM) Kavinder Gupta's reported statement that his party was "working on something".
"I don't think a new government will be formed anytime soon. Uncertainties are there, but we are working on something and people will get to know about it," Gupta had reportedly said.
The NC leader claimed that Gupta's statement hinted at the BJP's attempts to break other parties to form a government in Jammu and Kashmir.
"What do you mean 'we are working on something'? The only 'something' would be to break other parties & make up the numbers to form a BJP Govt. Has the former DCM inadvertently spilled the beans?" Omar asked on Twitter.
On a news report about Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh not being kept in the loop about the BJP's decision to pull out of the government, Omar tweeted, "If this story is true & @HMOIndia didn't know about the impending demise of the BJPDP alliance then the fact that it caught me & my colleagues by surprise is really no big deal."

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