The BJP on Monday slammed Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah saying he was speaking the language of separatists on the Afzal Guru issue and was trying to provoke the people of the Kashmir Valley.
Former BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu lashed out at Omar for raising a number of questions on the execution of the key plotter of 2001 Parliament attack. “The interviews given by Omar are highly objectionable and not in national interest,” he said. Slamming Afzal’s execution on Sunday, Omar had said: “It (the hanging) would reinforce a sense of alienation and injustice among generations of youth in the valley”.
He also said it was a “tragedy” that Guru was not allowed to meet his family before his hanging. “There were many questions that needed to be answered,” he had said.
Coming down heavily on Omar, Venkaiah said: “I do not know what prompted him to make such statements. The entire process of trial was conducted in a very fair manner. The top court has said that every opportunity was provided and every procedure has been followed. And I do not know what else the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir was expecting,” he said.
Venkaiah also took objection to Omar’s statements that Afzal’s execution would affect the new generation.
Speaking in a similar vein, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar described Omar’s interviews on the Afzal issue as condemnable. “Omar describes Afzal as a ‘young man of 43’, forgetting that six of the nine who were killed in the Parliament attack were younger than Afzal,” he said.
“Omar has talked about sense of alienation in the Kashmir Valley, which is actually an insult to the common Muslims there. It is equal to bracketing common Muslims with terrorists and anti-national elements,” he said.
“The BJP strongly condemns the statement, which is a denigration of the Kashmiri youth. Today’s Kashmiri youth identify with cricketer Shami Ahmed and IAS topper Shah Faisal and not with a terrorist like Afzal Guru,” the party spokesperson said.