Jammu, Feb 11: After Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah questioned the wisdom of executing Afzal Guru, the main opposition People’s Democratic Party in the state called India a “banana republic”.
 Former chief minister and PDP patron Mufti Muhammad Sayeed Monday evening issued a statement, accusing the central government of a “narrow-minded approach (that) has caused serious setbacks to the peace process”.
 His statement reflected complete support for Afzal Guru, matching the sentiments that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah expressed Sunday, a day after the execution, in interviews to TV channels.
 Mufti said: “It is no good to regret the inability of the government to deny Afzal’s family a last mandatory meeting with him or deny his body to the family.”
 Mufti Muhammad Sayeed said: “This reduces Mahatama Gandhi’s country, the world’s largest democracy and a genuine candidate for super power status, to a banana republic.”
 Mufti was a home minister of the country in the short lived V P Singh government from 1989-1990.
 Mufti urged the central government to “roll back the draconian measures in Kashmir, which have caused a whole population to be imprisoned”.
 He blamed Delhi for what has been happening in the Valley, claiming that law and order is a state subject and measures like curfew have been taken by Omar Abdullah.
 “Least the government could do to retrieve the situation to some extent in the aftermath of the execution of Muhammad Afzal Guru would be to lift unconstitutional curbs on normal life and return his body to the family”, he said in a statement.
 Mufti said by the extent and scale of curbs put on normal life Kashmir today does not look like part of Indian democracy. He said nowhere in civilised world much less in a functioning democracy could an entire population be imprisoned, news papers, internet, cable services banned and provisions denied.
 "It is no less than a collective punishment" he said while demanding immediate lifting of curfew and other restrictions including information blockade.
  “Mufti said it was sad that our democratic system could not accommodate some basic decency and legal requirements in dealing with an issue that could have very serious impact on the state and its future”.
 He said clemency to Afzal would only have lifted the democratic profile of the country, enhanced its prestige and sent a positive message of accommodation to people of the state. "If there ever was an overwhelming reason to use the provision of commutation provided by our constitution both for legal and political reasons it was this", he said.
 Referring to the setback suffered by peace process in Kashmir Mufti said the latest events have unfortunately created a sense of defeat among a people who have been bruised by six and a half decades of uncertainty and bloody history. "I wish it doesn't consume another generation of Kashmiri youth but one cannot wish away the apprehension" Mufti said.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 11 Feb 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:00:00 IST