Peoples Democratic Party candidate for Gulmarg constituency, Mohammad Abbas Wani Thursday said that incumbent MLA, Ghulam Hassan Mir, has sensed defeat, and that he won’t contest forthcoming Assembly elections.“Having already sensed defeat, I am sure that Mir will not contest elections,” Wani said while addressing PDP worker’s meeting at Townhall Kunzer today.Referring to the immense hardships people of Tangmarg have faced during Mir’s tenure, Wani said he has waged a holy war to end “slavery” in Tangmarg.
He also said that during the height of militancy not a single building was damaged in Tangmarg while as on September 13, 2010, several buildings were damaged in a “stage-managed” arson and six innocents were also killed. He said people of Tangmarg must try and find out who was behind all this.Referring to the allegations of Mir receiving Rs 1.19 crores from Army’s TSD to “dethrone the Omar Abdullah-led government” in 2010, Wani said “when Kashmir had lost 117 innocent youth, Mir was busy taking money from the Army to realize his dream of heading the state.”
“A person who can’t feel the pain of his family has no right to become its patriarch,” Wani said while alleging that Mir has bartered away the trust and blood of the people for his chair.He said Mir and his cohorts are trying to give an impression that “I would never have got the mandate had Mir not used his influence. Let me tell you, I had no desire for mandate nor was I interested to hog the limelight… My only aim to join the politics is to dethrone Mir and redeem people of Tangmarg from his cruel clutches.” Continuing his tirade against Mir, Wani said that from 1984 to 2002 Mir has, like a chameleon, been changing sides – “he joined parties and later ditched them”.
He said Mir used different platforms and hatched many a conspiracies to implicate him (Abbas Wani). “I still remember how he tried to implicate me when a grenade was lobbed on the cavalcade of NC leader Dr. Mustafa Kamal,” said Wani.While praising the role of youngsters in pioneering the ‘change’, Wani said that youth in Tangmarg have opened their eyes and realized “who deserves to represent the constituency.”
“Youth will decide the future of whole Kashmir… Just like the way they achieved freedom by eliminating NC in the parliament elections, I am sure they will do the same in assembly elections too,” he told the gathering.
“And, I am hopeful that youth in Tangmarg will leave no stone unturned in dethroning Mir, who has been dangling over their heads like a Damocles’ sword,” said Wani.
In his speech, prominent PDP worker, Prof Abdul Jabbar called on the youth to usher in a new era and lead the change in the coming elections.Prof Jabbar, who presided over the function, said that PDP is the only party in J&K working for fostering better relations and trade between India and Pakistan.He said that “sense of honour and dignity” was restored among the Kashmiris when PDP assumed power in 2002. “PDP wiped out the fear spread by government-backed gunmen that time. The concept of crackdowns has been erased from the minds of Kashmiris. Single mention of STF used to send shivers down the spines of Kashmiris. It was Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who gave Kashmiris respite from this and restored their dignity besides giving them a sense of security,” claimed Prof Jabbar.
Once voted to power, he said that the first priority for PDP will be to address the concerns of a huge army of unemployed educated youth.Zonal president and senior district vice-president, Abdul Aziz Dar also spoke on the occasion. Dar, who was guest of honour, backed the candidature of Mohammad Abbas Wani.“We all love and support you. We repose full trust in your abilities and will leave no stone unturned in making you successful,” Dar told Abbas.Many other prominent workers also spoke on the occasion expressed their full support to Wani and saying “we have full faith in your abilities to redeem Tangmarg from representational crisis.” (KNS)