Poonch, May 08: Apni Party Senior Vice President, Ghulam Hassan Mir on Wednesday accused the National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of pushing youth towards terrorism to fulfill their political ambition in Jammu and Kashmir.
Seeking an end to the gun culture and making a plea to bring the younger generation towards a bright future, Mir said the Apni Party has committed that it favours general amnesty for the detained youth so that they can return to their normal life.
Mir, according to a party statement issued here, was addressing a public meeting organised in Mendhar Tehsil of Poonch district in Jammu Province. The meeting was held following a roadshow in favour of the party candidate for Rajouri–Anantnag Parliamentary seat, Zafar Iqbal Manhas.
G H Mir in his address said, “The Apni Party has committed to implement welfare schemes for the people of Jammu as well as Kashmir i.e. 500 units of free electricity in Jammu region during summer season, and 300 units of free electricity during winter season. The party would enhance the widow/old age pension up to Rs 5,000 from Rs 1,000, provide four cooking gas cylinders to each family per year under the Ujjwala Scheme, and the enhancement of marriage assistance scheme up to Rs 1 lakh for girls from economically weaker sections.”
Highlighting the welfare schemes to the people, he raised the question that the National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party have failed to bring out their roadmap for the development and welfare of the people.
In place of bringing out their roadmap, he questioned the intention of the NC President Dr Farooq Abdullah for raising an “inflammatory slogan” in Kashmir on Tuesday. “That shows they have become demoralised in these elections, and want the youth to again adopt gun culture,” he said.
“Terrorism got wings in Jammu and Kashmir because of the policy of promoting terrorism by these local political parties although they themselves kept close relations with Delhi,” he said. “These parties showed the path of jails and graveyards to the youths of J&K for decades. However, the Apni Party opposed such policies.”
“Unfortunately, Dr Abdullah wants his children to continue to rule Jammu and Kashmir and on the other hand, they want the children of the general masses to suffer by adopting violent means that would destroy their future. However, the Apni Party would not allow this to happen,” he added.
Mir added, “We believe the issues can be resolved by talking to the Government of India,” he said, while citing an example of a peaceful situation that can be witnessed in Kashmir in the last several years in comparison to the rule of NC, and PDP in which hundreds of youths got killed and many sustained permanent disabilities.
Meanwhile, Zafar Manhas said he wants to get the detained youth released. “These youths were detained during the regime of National Conference and PDP even though they were not armed,” he said, adding that Jammu and Kashmir suffered heavily because of the dynastic rule by the NC and PDP.