KL Report
SRINAGAR
In a startling revelation, prominent National Conference worker from Ganderbal Muhammad Yousuf Bhat Monday said that he ‘saved’ Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his party National Conference by not sharing information about the circumstances in which NC worker Haji Yousuf died.
“I protected Omar Abdullah and saved his chair. I maintained silence when Haji Yousuf died. I know every secret of his ‘murder’ but did not share those with anyone so far,” Muhammad Yousuf Bhat told Srinagar based news gathering agency CNS adding that National Conference is the source of continuous miseries for the people of Kashmir Valley.
Pertinently, Haji Yousuf, a National Conference senior worker was summoned by the Chief Minister to his house on the evening of September 29, 2011 along with Muhammad Yousuf Bhat of Ganderbal and Salam Reshi who had allegedly given Rs1.8 crore to Haji Yousuf to buy them seats in the Legislative Council. Police had said that Yousuf died of cardiac arrest.
“I have decided to contest the Parliament elections as an independent candidate and after 39 years I quit NC which has become the family’s fiefdom,” he said adding that time has come that he breaks the silence and expose the “ill-designs” of National Conference.
Holding National Conference patron Dr Farooq Abdullah responsible for prevailing “gun culture” in Jammu and Kashmir, Bhat said that he is witness to the fact how Farooq Abdullah indulged in “coercion and rigging” during 1987 Assembly elections when there was Muslim United Front (MUF) wave.
“I was an NC agent during 1987 assembly elections and am witness to the fact how on the instructions of Farooq Abdullah, elections were rigged. The NC candidate from Ganderbal (Farooq Abdullah) had tasted defeat but he was surprisingly declared as the winner,” he said adding that it was only after the rigging on mass scale that Kashmiri dejected youth lost faith in democratic set up and started resistance movement.
He said that it was “fraud committed” by National Conference for the sake of grabbing power that gun culture flourished in Valley. Bhat alleged that NC has always betrayed his party workers and ignored Ganderbal. “I had joined this party where family members decide the course of action through dictatorial means in 1975. I worked as a dedicated and hardworking party worker in Ganderbal but I have realized now that there is no place for hardworking and loyal workers in the party. This party is sidelining seniors,” he said citing the examples of Nasir Aslam Wani and Davinder Singh Rana who according to him are the junior leaders of the party.
Pertinently few months back Sheikh Saloora of Ganderbal also quit NC and formed his own party namely ‘Awami Insaf Party’.
