National Conference Sunday sought an answer from opposition Peoples Democratic party (PDP) on the whereabouts of its patron and party’s Chief Ministerial candidate, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed during the unprecedented floods that submerged most parts of Srinagar and other parts of the Valley in September.In a statement NC spokesman Junaid Azim Mattu claimed that not only was PDP’s Chief Ministerial candidate absconding during the entire ordeal that Kashmir went through but PDP’s Members of Parliament were also conveniently missing from the scene.“Is it not a fact that Mufti Sayeed arrived on one plane at Srinagar airport and left on the very next flight even when the State Government on the instructions of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had kept a helicopter available for the PDP patron to visit the flood-affected areas of the State? Today, PDP’s pathological liars are out playing politics over a natural calamity by trying to exploit the miseries of the victims to score political brownie points. Where was PDP when Kashmir witnessed inarguably its worst natural disaster in recent contemporary history? The party wants the same person to be a Chief Minister of this State who couldn’t have it in him to visit even one flood-affected area despite being provided the facility to do so,” he said.
The NC Spokesman alleged that PDP was a party of contradictions and lies and believed in preaching one thing while practicing something entirely different. “There are typical examples of their hypocrisy in how they talk about human rights and amnesty to stone pelters without remembering how Mufti Sayeed got all top militant commanders eliminated soon after coming to power despite the fact that these militant commanders had declared a unilateral ceasefire and had agreed to talks during Dr. Farooq Abdullah’s tenure. While PDP preaches a ‘healing touch’, it has always practiced a ‘killing touch’ against the youth of Kashmir. PDP doesn’t have a right to raise the issue of human rights without Mufti Sayeed being tried in a court for his role in the Gaw Kadal, Handwara, Bijbehara, Hawal, Mashali Mohalla and countless other massacres that happened under his direct command as the then Home Minister of India” Mattu said.
“Similarly PDP should not forget that Afzal Guru was indicted, convicted and sentenced during the tenure of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as the Chief Minister of J&K. At that time PDP was in a coalition with Congress in the State and it was Congress that was in power at the center. Why didn’t Mufti raise a voice against this issue then when it would have mattered? Why didn’t PDP oppose the death sentence to Afzal Guru while PDP was in power in J&K? These are questions that remain not only unanswered by PDP but are also unanswerable,” the NC Spokesman said while lashing out at PDP for its hypocrisy and its efforts to occlude its own involvement in some of the biggest injustices against the people of Jammu and Kashmir.