Will Withdraw Cases Against Stone-Pelters if We Are Elected: Omar

NC leader Omar Abdullah also said that his party will do away with the Public Safety Act after coming to power.

J&K National Conference leader Omar Abdullah.

(Photo: PTI)

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said on Saturday, 13 April, that his party will “withdraw the cases against stone-pelters” if they are elected to power in the state Assembly elections, reported Greater Kashmir.

Abdullah made the comments to the press after campaigning for the party’s candidate for the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency, Hasnain Masoodi.

“I have already stated in some of the rallies in northern Kashmir that our party will withdraw all cases against the youth charged in stone-throwing cases if we are elected to power,” he was quoted by the newspaper as saying, adding that his party will also do away with the Public Safety Act after coming to power.

Under the Act, suspects can be detained by the police for as many as two years without a trial.

The Assembly elections in the state are not being held simultaneously with the ongoing Lok Sabha elections and a schedule for the former is yet to be decided.

The former chief minister of J&K also lashed out at PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti, pointing out that she should have spoken out against the BJP much earlier while the parties were still in alliance. Referring to the fallout of the PDP-BJP alliance in June 2018, Abdullah reportedly said she was “thrown out” of the chair.

“Was everything hunky-dory then (when BJP and PDP were in alliance)? Weren’t Muslims outside lynched and roasted to death when she was in alliance with them? Weren’t Kashmiri youth studying outside harassed then and was not it only during her stint as CM that it was decided that youths with stones in their hands will be treated as militants [sic]?

Omar Abdullah, as quoted by Greater Kashmir

(With inputs from Greater Kashmir.)