Farooq Abdullah Calls for Inquiry into Terror Rise in J&K

Srinagar: National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Saturday said that the sudden spurt in terror attacks and other incidents of violence in Jammu and Kashmir raises doubts about the motive behind such activity. He demanded an independent probe to find out who is doing it at whose behest.

“There should be a probe (into these incidents). How is it that (an elected) government has been formed and this is happening? I suspect this is being done by the people who want to destabilize this government. Otherwise, why wasn’t it happening earlier,” he said here. He added, “I think it is being done to set off a crisis. There should be an independent inquiry into it”.

Pleading that the suspected militants trapped inside a private house following the security forces launched a cordon-and-search-operation in Srinagar’s Khanyar area earlier during the day on Saturday should not be killed but captured alive, the former chief minister said, “They can be asked at whose behest are they doing it. That’s the way. Who are these people who are doing it and why? Why didn’t they do it in all these years? I’m concerned”.

But he also claimed that such incidents will not leave any impact on the functioning of the Omar Abdullah government. “These things will not succeed. We will deal with it, God willing. People are not with this.”

Reiterating that those holed up in the Khanyar locality should be captured alive instead of being killed by the security forces, the NC leader said, “We should not kill but capture them alive, so that we know who is behind them…is there some agency which is trying to destabilize Omar Abdullah. Militancy wasn’t there. How has it resurfaced suddenly? There was normalcy, people were busy with their daily chorus, tourism was thriving. Thank God!”

Earlier NC MP Syed Ruhullah Mehdi had while condemning the attack on two non-local labourers by suspected militants in Mazhama area of central district of Budgam questioned the effectiveness of the security apparatus under the current Modi-government, which directly oversees J&K. “The BJP regime, which is directly in control of the security in J&K, should be held accountable for these repeated failures,” he had said. He further raised concerns about a potential correlation between the surge in terror attacks and the recently held J&K Assembly elections, asking, “Why this sudden rise in these attacks immediately after the recent elections?”

However, defence minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday asserted that there are no security lapses and that the security forces are giving a befitting reply to the terrorists involved in acts of violence.

While speaking to reporters in Kanpur (UP), Mr. Singh said, “This is not an issue of security lapses. Compared to earlier times, attacks have been reduced. Our security forces are on alert, such a situation will come that from there (J&K) terror activities will be fully wiped out and J&K will develop fast.” He added, “The attacks that happened were unfortunate, our security forces are giving befitting reply also, so many terrorists have been killed.”