A day after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed triggered a controversy by hinting that Pakistan and the Kashmiri separatists had allowed a conducive atmosphere for the Assembly polls in the State, the Peoples Democratic Party on Monday called the hanging of Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru unjustified and sought his mortal remains lying buried inside the Tihar Jail in Delhi.
While the statements seem to have generated friction between the new coalition partners — the PDP and the BJP — they are largely being seen as an attempt by the PDP to blunt criticism in the Valley of its alliance with the BJP. Both parties had fought a bitter election and hold diametrically opposite constituencies.
Mr. Sayeed’s daughter and PDP president, Mehbooba Mufti, on Monday defended her father in a TV interview saying that he was “a man of peace” and that no one from the BJP had got in touch with them over the statements.
“The media is Delhi has overplayed the statement because they do not understand Kashmir. My father’s point is that we need to engage Pakistan so that they have a stake in peace,” she said.
The separatists s called the PDP’s statements an attempt at “perception management”.
“It is akin to gagging a man and then thanking him for maintaining silence,” separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani said. Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told The Hindu: “We have nothing to do with the electoral politics. But since Mufti [Mohammed Sayeed] has taken a U-turn on all the promises he made to the people who voted for him, he is using the name of Pakistan and separatists to tjustify his alliance.”
The statement on Afzal Guru was made by seven legislators of the PDP on a day when the Legislative Council elections for six seats were on.
Former Chief Minister and Opposition leader Omar Abdullah on Monday criticised the PDP for using the issue of Guru’s remains to garner a vote from one of the Independent candidates, Abdul Rasheed Sheikh.
