J&K government promoting wedge between regions, religions: Farooq

Blaming the present Jammu and Kashmir government for “promoting wedge” between various regions and religions, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday appealed for unity and tolerance while “disapproving” acts which hurts religious sentiments of others.

Mr Abdullah also condemned the paint smearing attack on the activist and columnist Sudheendra Kulkarni in Mumbai during a book release function, and said that such attempts are against the spirit of freedom of speech for which India is known world over.

“Great religion of Islam vehemently disapproves of hurting the religious sentiments of others,” Mr Abdullah said, while addressing party functionaries at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhavan here this morning, and added that the provocative acts could jeopradise peace across the country and in the state.

He blamed the present dispensation for promoting a “wedge between various regions and religions”, as it has terribly lost credibility due to failure on all fronts.

In this context, he referred to manipulations being made to usurp Waqf and taking such measures which had potential of jeopardizing peace and tranquility.

He cautioned people against their machinations and tentacles to put the state of Jammu and Kashmir on boil, saying they won’t be allowed to exploit sentiments of various segments of society for remaining glued to power. “Hate mongers have no space in the civilized society,” he said.

The National Conference chief expressed anguish over divisive forces getting space in the political landscape of the country, and said the attempts of weakening the unity and amity would only help enemies, who want to disintegrate the nation. He lamented over attempts of creating wedge between various segments of society as part of vote politics, and said this will prove detrimental to the overall interests of the country.

Referring to recent unfortunate incidents across the State, he called for restraint, saying that caution needs to be observed while commenting over happenings as these could arouse the fire rather than dousing it. - PTI