Srinagar, Aug 12: Senior Apni Party leader and Mayor of Srinagar, Junaid Azim Mattu on Saturday condemned the “malicious and self-seeking attempts” by National Conference president and Member of Parliament for Srinagar, Dr Farooq Abdullah to “scuttle” normalcy and record tourism inflow into Kashmir.
Reacting to Dr Farooq’s speech in the Lok Sabha, Mattu said, “While Dr Farooq Abdullah had every right to score political points and while Apni Party had no love lost for the BJP or its policies viz-a-viz Kashmir, it was utterly condemnable and tragic that he went above and beyond to mislead the whole world that Kashmir wasn’t safe for tourism.”
“This is a direct attempt to snatch the livelihood of millions of souls in Kashmir who depend on tourism for their survival and livelihood. Dr Farooq might be oblivious to the enormous economic distress that Kashmir’s tourism sector has witnessed in the recent past but the common man is still recovering from that devastation,” he said in a statement issued here.
Junaid added, “While every political party is well within its rights to put forth its political narratives and arguments, it is unfortunate that National Conference cannot look beyond its own partisan interests and is ready to set fire to the economy of Kashmir in its efforts to score political points.”
The Apni Party leader also asked the NC president to “introspect and realise that the genesis of all sufferings, misery, devastation and terrorism in Kashmir lies in his brazen and devastating acts of subverting democracy in 1987 to seek political power”.
“Two entire generations of Kashmiris lost the right to normal life due to Dr Farooq Abdullah’s and National Conference’s undemocratic and autocratic crackdown on political opponents in 1987. We are still reeling under the aftermath of that subversion and injustice that was perpetuated in broad daylight,” the Mayor Srinagar said, adding, “As our party president, Syed Muhammad Altaf Bukhari Sahab rightly spoke about at Soibugh Budgam recently, an entire generation was pushed into the throes of anarchy, violence and isolation by National Conference in 1987.”
Cautioning National Conference against disrupting normalcy and peace, the Apni Party leader said that while every conscientious Kashmiri was united in their resolve to seek justice and restoration of the constitutional rights and guarantees that were “snatched arbitrarily” in 2019, nobody had the right to defame and malign Kashmiris in the entire world, especially when their economic survival was at stake.
