Srinagar: People's Democratic Party President Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday said having unceremoniously dumped his AFSPA revocation demand, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was now trying to blame everybody except himself for his countless "failures" and "follies".




"Unfortunately, Omar Abdullah's wavering stance on crucial issues during the past six years has reduced the Chief Minister's post to a mockery," Mehbooba said addressing an election rally in Kulgam town of south Kashmir.

Accusing Omar of never having made a serious effort for the revocation of AFSPA, the PDP president challenged Omar to come up with a single communication that he has made with the Centre during the past six years for revocation of the controversial law.

"He (Omar) must know that the governments don't function through rhetoric and verbal acrobatics, but call for tangible action," she said.

It was only on the persuasion of PDP Patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, through a series of communications with the then Prime Minister, that in June 2007 a committee headed by the Defence Minister was constituted to undertake a holistic review of the controversial law, Mehbooba claimed.

"However, due to lack of follow-up by the successive governments in the State, no headway could be made on the issue," Mehbooba said.

She alleged that Omar announced revocation of AFSPA "within two or three days" on October 21, 2011, in the aftermath of "(NC worker) Haji Yousuf's death in suspicious circumstances."

"After that, the Chief Minister has been regularly diluting his stand on this important issue," she alleged.

The PDP president said Omar continued to raise AFSPA as a slogan to cover his "failures on every front" and after dumping the issue for good, he is now trying to shift the blame on others including her party.

"As the chief minister of the State, Omar Abdullah was always well within his powers to revoke AFSPA in Jammu and Kashmir. All he had to do was to withdraw the Disturbed Areas Act, the AFSPA would have automatically gone," she said.

Mehbooba said it would not be surprising if Omar would blame PDP even for the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, which was "facilitated by him to help his friends in the Congress."

"He is now even vainly trying to shift the blame of 120 innocent killings during 2010 unrest on others," she said.



PTI

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