Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday dismissed the Opposition’s demand for the setting up of a panel to look into the unrest in the Valley, PTI reported. She also accused the National Conference and Congress of “sowing seeds of turmoil” in the state.
Addressing the Assembly during the state Budget Session, Mufti said the 1987 alliance between the National Conference and Congress had facilitated the weaponisation of the Valley’s youth. The chief minister was replying to a statement, made by Congress member Rigzin Jora, referring to the coalition her People’s Democratic Party shared with the Bharatiya Janata Party as the “unholy alliance”.
“Some people here say that a commission should be set up to probe it [unrest]. But just yesterday I received the report of the [Justice M L] Koul Commission set up to probe the 2010 killings. Let us first fix the responsibilities in it [2010 killings] and talk of a new commission only after reading that report,” Mufti said. The chief minister was referring to the violence that took place during the National Conference-Congress regime in the state in 2010.
National Conference members protested against Mufti’s statements during her address and said her father and former chief minister, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, was a member of the Congress in 1987.
The state has been marred with protests and violence since Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed in July 2016. More than 100 people have died and thousands have been injured since then. The state government has been criticised for using excessive force against civilians, even as the state continues to suffer because of curfews, blocked mobile services, closed schools and other disruptions to everyday activities.
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