Jammu, March 28 (IANS) Peoples Conference (PC) president and MLA Sajad Gani Lone on Saturday drew a parallel between his father’s assassination and the recent attack on former chief minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, alleging that security has often been used for political ends.
Delivering an emotionally charged speech in the J&K legislative assembly on Saturday, Sajad Lone condemned the attack on Dr Farooq Abdullah while drawing a painful parallel to his own father’s assassination, while demanding accountability on the political use of security.
Sajad said, “Dr Farooq Abdullah is one of the most colourful and dynamic human beings we have seen in Kashmir politics. The name of the person who saved him hasn’t come up anywhere to date. This is a great injustice that even I don’t know his name to date”.
He demanded a civilian award for the unidentified saviour, urging the government to recognise the act before it fades from public memory.
He then recalled that nearly 20 legislators and members have been martyred over the decades, including his own father and the father of fellow member and minister, Sakina Itoo.
“Whenever there is an attempt or an assassination, our pain becomes fresh. That entire film plays back again. Death is inevitable; everyone has to die, but this death by violence, it never leaves you.”
He alleged that these attacks indicated structural failure of security decisions made on political grounds.
Recounting the circumstances around his father’s killing, he said, “He (Sajad’s father) didn’t contest elections. He was a separatist then. If there are ideological differences, shall we allow a person to be killed by not giving him security? That is a big question that we will have to ask.”
He went further, disclosing that in the immediate aftermath of his father’s martyrdom, he was denied security to travel to the very site of the killing for burial rites. “Sir, that government did not give me security to go there,” he said, recalling that the then Divisional Commissioner personally warned him against making the journey. “I said he was my father, he raised me all my life, should I not go there? He said they will kill you.”
The appeal, he added, was that of a son, and one he believed thousands across Jammu and Kashmir shared.
“Whichever government it may be, it has used security for political ends. And perhaps today’s government is doing it too. “But we have to learn from it.”
He called for an unconditional pledge that security would never again be made a tool of political pressure, adding that any government denying the practice was being dishonest.
Lone congratulated Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his family on Farooq Abdullah’s return. “Perhaps I, Sakina ji, and the many people here, were not that lucky; our respected fathers did not come back. But I am so happy that Allah has kept this asset. Farooq Sahab is now one of the few remaining from the old guard, who is a guiding father for all of us”, he said while ending his speech.
--IANS
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