The Lower House Wednesday witnessed uproar on the alleged sacrilegious act in a temple in Jammu after legislators from both opposition and ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) sparred over the incident. As soon as the proceedings of the Question House began, BJP legislators led by Ravinder Raina demanded that the House should unanimously condemn the desecration of the temple in Janipur, Jammu.“A person has entered into the temple in Janipur, Jammu, and has ransacked the entire temple. The incident created law and order problem in Jammu. It is a big concern and the house should condemn it. The government should issue a statement on the situation and the House should condemn it,” he said.However, independent legislator from Langate Er Abdul Rashid and few opposition legislators from Congress and Nation Conference accused the government of “targeting Muslims in Jammu”.As the uproar intensified, the Opposition NC leader and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah rose up from the Opposition Bench and lamented the absence of the chief minister and deputy Chief Minister in the House and for not responding to the situation.
“Better would have been if Chief Minister and deputy Chief Minister were present in the House to respond over the issue,” Omar said.Omar said that the opposition has played an important role in restoring peace and harmony whenever there has been law and order situation.Omar said that the infighting in the house over Jammu issue would have its consequences outside house.“If we continue to fight in the House then it will definitely have consequences as people will also resort to such activities outside too. The House should unanimously appeal the people in Jammu to maintain brotherhood,” Omar, who is MLA from Beerwah.“We should condemn the incident,” he added.However, Congress legislator from Inderwal, G M Saroori said that Muslim youth “are being selectively targeted in Jammu and are jailed without any involvement in any unlawful incident”.Opposition NC legislator from Pahalgam, Altaf Ahmad Wani, blamed the PDP-BJP government in failing to maintain law and order situation in Jammu in the back drop of the incident.
“The government has failed to keep up the law and order and is adopting anti-people policies. The only thing this government knows is to jail people,” Wani said.CPI (M) state secretary and Independent MLA from Kulgam, M Y Tarigami intervened.Tarigami said the entire house should condemn the incident and asked the House to appeal the people in Jammu to maintain peace and harmony.“The House should play an important role in restoring peace and harmony in Jammu,” he said.Meanwhile, Minister of Rural Development, Abdul Haq Khan informed the House that the accused youth was a “lunatic” person who has been arrested by police after the incident.“On June14 one person namely Yasir who resides in Doda entered in the temple in Janipur and ransacked the temple. The preliminary enquiry revealed that the accused was a lunatic person who later was taken to the concerned police station,” Khan said.“Later some Pujaris followed by large number of people resorted to sloganeering in the area and police resorted to lathi charge of the mob. The mob set two police buses and a scooty on fire,” the minister said.“FIR has been registered into the case and the police station Janipur has taken up investigation into the incident,” he said. (KNS)