Separatists should come clean on the sting operation: Rashid

SRINAGAR:  The separatists should take a moral high ground and come out clean on the sting operation by a Delhi-based television channel which showed them allegedly being involved in subversive activities in Jammu and Kashmir, Independent MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid said today.

His remarks came in the wake of the sting operation on separatists Nayeem Khan and Farooq Dar alias Bitta Karate wherein they confessed to receiving money from Pakistan-based terror groups. "I humbly request Hurriyat (Conference) friends as citizens of the state and as well wishers of the mass resistance...you are representing the sentiment and you should take a moral high ground as people have a right to know the truth behind these attempts to defame Kashmiris," he told reporters here.

The legislator said the Hurriyat had nothing to hide. "Money is needed everywhere. People will continue to offer money, but their means should be good and it is better if everything is transparent. I am sure Hurriyat has nothing to hide because they are representing the sentiment," he said.

The Independent MLA also asked the media to follow journalistic ethics while reporting on Kashmir. "There should not be a race for TRPs by defaming or insulting Kashmiris," he said. In a similar vein, Rashid condemned the breach of privacy of separatist leader Yasin Malik, wherein a female journalist allegedly barged into his bedroom. Rashid claimed that he was also approached by those behind the sting operation. "They offered me loads of money which I refused. I told them I did not need money for speaking the truth," he said.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has named Nayeem Khan and Farooq Dar alias Bitta Karate along with Naeem Khan in its Preliminary Enquiry (PE) against the alleged role of separatists in carrying out subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley, including pelting security forces with stones, damaging public property and burning schools and other government establishments.