Breaking his silence on the mysterious death of a National Conference (NC) worker in police custody, party president and Union minister Dr Farooq Abdullah denied the allegations that the deceased had collected `12 million from two other partymen promising them ministerial berth and senior positions in the state government on his behalf.
Death of Syed Muhammad Yusuf Shah soon after he was handed over to the state police’s crime branch by chief minister Omar Abdullah has been seized upon by Opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to demand the resignation of chief minister Omar Abdullah and minister of state Nasir Aslam Wani. It is also asking for filing a case against Dr Farooq Abdullah on charges of bribery. Strongly denying that the 62-year-old NC worker was brutally beaten up at the chief minister’s residence, the state government claims that he died of a cardio-respiratory arrest confirmed by a preliminary autopsy report. The preliminary autopsy report also says that the deceased’s corpse bore no torture marks as is being alleged.
The BJP, the other mainstream Opposition party, has termed the controversy as J&K’s “cash-for-vote” scam and demanded an independent inquiry into the issue so that the “killers” were identified and brought to justice.
The separatist groups have, meanwhile, condemned the killing “on humanitarian grounds” but asked why the national political parties and media do not show similar concern over the alleged killings of ordinary Kashmiris at the hands of government forces. “We’ve no problems with the national media showing concern about Shah’s death but I want to ask them why they don’t voice the same concern for other issues and always downplay the human rights violations committed by the government forces,” said Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Muhammad Yasin Malik while speaking to reporters here.
Separately, Dr Farooq Abdullah told reporters that the PDP’s baying for his chief minister son’s blood was a “political stunt.”