KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
National Conference (NC) Saturday said that its senior politician and former Finance Minister who represented Chrar-i-Sharief constituency in state legislature was detained in his home by police.
Ab Rahim Rather, who lost Chrar-i-Sharief constituency to Gh Nabi Lone Hanjura, was scheduled visit to see those injured persons at Sogam in Chadoora area of Budgam.
Condemning what NC said “unconstitutional house arrest” of Rather ahead of his scheduled visit to see injured at Sogam, Chadoora, its Provincial President National Conference Nasir Aslam Wani castigated the PDP-BJP government’s decision of putting Rather “under house arrest” and said, “Mufti sb has taken his personal vendetta against NC to the next level. By putting a six time legislator and one of the senior most leaders of our party under house arrest, he has revealed the nefarious designs of this government.”
While questioning the government on its “hypocritical stance” wherein the party had earlier claimed that it would address all voices of dissent, Nasir said, “when they cannot even tolerate a different opinion from a mainstream party like NC which has been the fountain head of democratic ideals in Kashmir, situation of separatists and their politics in Kashmir can well be imagined.”
“The house arrest of Rather Sb unfortunately is not a one off incident. Mufti government has been doing it for quite some time now. Few days back, government arrested youth wing leaders of NC just for raising their voice peacefully against issues concerning general public. This inevitably proves the point that Mufti government has only one mandate and that is to scuttle democratic institutions in Kashmir,” Nasir said adding, “PDPs much touted ‘Battle of Ideas’ was and is a complete farce now as the same party which had spoken volumes about accommodating voices of dissent is in itself working against the interests of democracy and its constituents. Today, the government has resorted to subjugating the voices of even those who are part of the democratic process in J&K.”
He also condemned the police action on villagers in Chadoora who had questioned the government move of construction of a water supply scheme as it was bound to dry up water supply schemes that are already built on Doodh Ganga stream.
The water pipe scheme was approved by the then Omar Abdullah led NC-Congress coalition government in 2013, state government recently said while suspending work on it.
