Srinagar, Apr 14: J&K Peoples Conference Chairman Sajad Gani Lone Sunday in a scathing attack to NC Lok Sabha candidate from north Kashmir’s Baramulla Omar Abdullah said “I was expecting a Kashmiri to contest election from there, but there is a tourist who has to fight polls and let him to fight”.
Lone who was former Member of the Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir criticized Omar Abdullah without explicating his name termed him a “tourist”.
“I was expecting some Kashmiri political leader to fight elections from north Kashmir’s Baramulla however there is a tourist who have come forward to contest polls. We are tourist friendly people, and let him to fight elections there,” Lone told reporters here.
Responding to a query, he said that Statehood is the cornerstone of our ideology that we will have to get it back. “Let others to say what they wish. Fiction writers can be good in cooking stories. But I ‘m confident that we will win elections,” he said.
Lambasting regional political party National Conference over its role in the history of Kashmir, Lone said that we have a history and everything is evident there. “We have been victims of NC-BJP alliance. My father Late Abdul Gani Lone was assaulted in their regime. There was Shiv Sena then, who was their alliance partner, and there was one Kalkaji Maharaj who was given Z security cover by Dr. Farooq Abdullah. But at the same time my 72-year old father was dragged out. POTA was brought in Kashmir, and Omar Abdullah being a Foreign Minister was acting as a shield that there is no human rights violation happening in Jammu & Kashmir,” Lone said.
He said, “I belong to that majority which has been jailed, tortured and even my father was killed. And they belong to that minority who jailed people, booked people randomly under PSA, fired bullets and made graveyard in every nook and corner of Kashmir. So they (NC) should not sermonize me, as I don’t have blood on my hand”.