Omar Ducks Hard Issues With Chopper Stunt: Hurriyat (G)

“Why Silence On Handing Yatra To Pandits, Slashing Duration?”

Srinagar – Terming the chief minister’s helicopter offer to Syed Ali Shah Geelani as a political stunt, the Hurriyat (G) on Sunday said that Omar Abdullah had been silent on its demand of dissolving the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board and handing the yatra over to Kashmiri Pandits.

“Omar Abdullah has not answered the Hurriyat (G)’s solid evidence showing construction material dumped in the yatra zone and how preparations are afoot for a phased widening and macadamizing the road to the Amarnath shrine,” a spokesman of the faction said today in reply to the chief minister’s allegations yesterday.

“The issue is not of road-widening and macadamizing alone, but the Hurriyat has issues with the status and powers of the shrine board and the long duration and massive scale of the yatra as well. Omar Abdullah has made no mention of these factors in his speech,” he said.

“He has merely used helicopter rhetoric as a red herring to mislead the public,” he said.

“The state helicopter is not Omar Abdullah’s private property, but the toil and blood of the masses, and taking Geelani on a chopper ride does not resolve any issues,” he said.

“The Hurriyat’s survey team has toured the area on foot and captured the dumped construction material on film. It would be impossible to see the material from a helicopter,” he said.

“Let Omar Abdullah release Geelani from house arrest, and the latter will make his own arrangements about visiting the area, and if need be, take people along to the see the fact on the ground,” he said.

“Instead of obfuscating, Omar Abdullah should answer why construction material is being stocked in the yatra zone,” he said.

“What are the constructions for, and who are being settled in them?” he said.

According to the spokesman, the Hurriyat (G) has emailed photographs of the dumped material to the chief minister on Sunday.

“If he has the moral courage, he should comment on them, or at least issue a denial,” he said.

“Geelani had never said in the press conference that a concrete road was being constructed on this date, but that the Hurriyat was justified in concluding from solid evidence that the plans of the Indian agencies being executed systematically would prove a grave threat to the interests of the Jammu and Kashmir state with incalculable damage to its ecology and biodiversity,” he said.

“Omar Abdullah has made no comments on the Hurriyat’s demand of handing the ytra over to Kashmiri Pandits or slashing its scale and duration on the pattern of the Gangotri pilgrimage to subject it to a system of discipline,” he said.

“Talking merely of macadamizing is an attempt to divert attention from the real issues and a bid to fool the people,” he said.

“The dangerous plan India is executing here through the shrine board is directly the control and supervision of the state governor, and Omar Abdullah has been given no role in it,” he said.

“The shrine board is running a parallel government in Jammu and Kashmir, and is neither accountable to the state government nor required to report to anyone on its activities,” he said.

“In other states, the governor is merely a symbolic figure, but in Jammu and Kashmir he is like a British viceroy with limitless powers,” he said.

“Omar Abdullah too is fully cognisant of this situation, and resents it also, but is silent because of political compulsions,” he said.

“The only worry consuming him is a 2008-like agitation over the Amarnath issue flaring up again in the state, as in that case he would see his throne under threat, something he does not want to lose under any circumstances,” he said. (Observer News Service)