|
|
|
| June 29, 2002 | Saturday | Rabi-us-Sani 17, 1423 |
Farooq blasts Delhi over threat to impose direct rule
SRINAGAR, June 28: Occupied Kashmir’s “chief minister” Farooq Abdullah said on Friday that New Delhi did not have the right to impose direct rule over the held state, in a rebuke to Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
The premier on Friday pledged that polls in occupied Kashmir, due by Oct 14, would be free and said if need be his cabinet would put the held state under direct rule from New Delhi.
“I think it is time that fair elections are held in (held) Jammu and Kashmir and for that, if need be, I shall even have president’s rule,” Vajpayee told reporters in Lucknow, his home constituency.
Abdullah told reporters in Srinagar: “What mechanism or constitutional power does the centre have to impose president’s or governor’s rule?”
“Last time when we won the elections, there was governor’s rule in the (occupied) state,” he said.
The held state was last brought under direct Delhi rule in 1990, when Abdullah resigned after New Delhi appointed Jagmohan state governor against the “chief minister’s liking.
“What has happened now? Don’t they trust us?” asked Abdullah, whose party is a part of Vajpayee’s coalition in New Delhi.
Abdullah questioned why the premier did not impose president’s rule in the western state of Gujarat, one of the few states ruled by Vajpayee’s Hindu nationalist BJP, where at least 1,000 people — most of them Muslims — died this year in communal riots.
HIZB PLEDGE: The Hizbul Mujahideen pledged on Friday to keep up its struggle against Indian occupation.
The group made its statement after a fresh surge of violence in occupied Kashmir.
Indian police said 19 people, including eight from the Indian forces, died in various incidents on Thursday, including one attack claimed by the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. Three more people, including a soldier and two Mujahideen, died on Friday. “We will continue such attacks on Indian occupation forces and their installations unless they quit Kashmir,” a spokesman said.
New Delhi is keen to bring about a semblance of normalization to pave the way for elections.—AFP/Reuters
|
|
|
|
