Jammu and Kashmir ruling National Conference (NC) president and Union minister Farooq Abdullah on Thursday disowned his younger brother Sheikh Mustafa Kamaal’s recent utterances directed against the Army and coalition partner Congress, saying neither he nor his party endorsed these.
The statements made by Dr Mustafa Kamaal on the issues like policies of the coalition government, relationship with the Congress party, AFSPA and the role of the Army in the past few days “are regrettable and are not endorsed by me and do not reflect our party’s policy,” Dr Abdullah said in a statement here.
Earlier on Wednesday, chief minister Omar Abdullah had regretted Mr Kamaal’s diatribe and admitted that his uncle’s statement against the Army had put me in a terrible awkward position. Mr Kamaal who is the chief spokesperson and additional secretary general of the NC had while questioning the timing of recent serial blasts and shooting incidents in the Valley said that forces opposed to the revocation of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act could be behind these which include Army and defence ministry. He also chose to publicly chastise Congress Party and its local leadership on varied issues including curtailing the emergency laws in force in the state since the outbreak of insurgency in 1990.
Dr Abdullah said that Mr Kamaal has been advised to exercise restraint and follow the party policy line on all issues including those he has spoken on recently. He said the NC is committed to running the coalition smoothly. “I’ve the highest regards for the Congress leadership particularly the UPA chairperson Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The NC values their support to the coalition government in the state,” he said. The NC president and Union New and renewable energy minister further said the coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir “is doing a commendable job for the welfare of the people by working for normalcy and accelerating the developmental activities in the state and in this task the Congress has given great support for which the NC is grateful to them.”