KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Ahead of the discussion on beef ban in JK Assembly Thursday, Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed said the issue (beef ban) will soon die down.
“The matter is with the Supreme Court, let us wait for what it has to say,” Mufti said in his first interview to Indian Express after becoming JK chief minister second time.
Clearing his stand on beef ban, Mufti said the question to ask is why has the beef ban remained in the state for 75 years, “under successive governments, be it of Sheikh saheb, Bakshi saheb, Sadiq saheb, or others. Why was the ban not lifted?”
There is a sensitivity about the issue, he said. “And there is a toleration in the system. In the rural areas, it used to be eaten chori chori because it was cheaper meat, as happens in the villages in UP. Generally, people in Kashmir do not eat beef. Now the matter is with the Supreme Court, with two benches of the Jammu High Court having taken contradictory positions.”
Brushing aside the resistance witnessed in valley after High Court enacted the Dogra era law, Mufti said the issue soon die down.
Justifying the govt’s internet blockade move on Eid, Mufti said the step was essential. “With the kind of pictures that were going viral, it would have created huge problems. The issue is linked to people’s ‘jazbaat’. Even Geelani Saheb (Pro-Pak Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani) made a very sensible statement that nothing should be done which hurts the sentiments of people.”
