Calling for an immediate end to shelling from across the border, National Conference President Dr Farooq Abdullah on Saturday said the terrified border dwellers along Line of Control and International Border in Jammu and Kashmir were braving the situation with fortitude notwithstanding human loss and freezing of normal activity. “Due to shelling and insecurity looming large, the people were finding themselves helpless with economic activities coming to grinding halt and schooling of children suffering adversely”, Dr Abdullah said while addressing his party workers at Chak Lal Din in Raipur Domana Constituency this afternoon.In a statement to KNS, he hoped for normalcy to return on immediate basis so that the people live in eased atmosphere. Expressing solidarity with border residents, he conveyed his condolences to all those families which have lost their dear ones in the shelling for some time now. “The suffering people deserve compassion, immediate assistance and above all timely help in terms of medical and besides safe shelters during the exigencies”, he maintained.
Dr Abdullah, who arrived in the winter capital on a two day visit, asked the people to maintain unity and alienate the divisive forces, who were attempting to fragment the cohesive society on religious and regional lines. “Guard against them who are coming in different guises in order to break your unity and commitment to peaceful co-existence”, he told the cheering audience and said that National Conference will also fight these elements with full might. “They can incite passions but not break our will to live together as a single entity”, he added.National Conference President said his party is committed to protect the interests of the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, as it is the only political entity having its presence in every nook and corner of the State. “We have always kept the interests of common people above everything and for this National Conference has offered numerous sacrifices from time to time”, he said and hoped the people will carry forward this cherished agenda to posterity. He said Jammu and Kashmir has to survive and flourish as a single entity and anybody or any political entity thinking in terms of weakening it will meet stiff public resistance
“People of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh are the real source of power and this strength will not only be sustained but also channelized in the direction where the State maintains its unique identity”, he observed.State Vice President Rattan Lal Gupta while speaking the gathering exhorted people to maintain unity and fight the nefarious designs of vested interests with their full might. He said the State is passing through a most crucial phase with elements inimical to its unity attempting to incite passions and exploiting religious sentiments. “The best rebuff to such elements is to preserve our composite ethos”, he added.
District President Jammu Rural (A) Satpal Lakhotra, in his address, said that each worker is striving hard as a foot soldier of National Conference to reach out to the people and seek redressal to their grievances. He said the public woes continue to accumulate due to wrong policies being adopted by the insensitive PDP-BJP Coalition Government, which has abdicated its responsibility towards the people.Lakhotra said National Conference is the only hoped in a choked political atmosphere where myopic politicians were attempting to create wedge between various segments of the society. “They are not only dividing the society on communal and regional lines but also on sub regional and caste basis”, he said, adding that their machinations will not be allowed to succeed. (KNS)