There is nothing like agitational terrorism: Omar Abdullah

Jammu, Nov 9 : Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Monday objected to the army terming the frequent protests and shutdowns in the state as 'agitational terrorism'.

Abdullah, who was here on the opening day of government offices in winter capital Jammu as part of the 'durbar move', rubbished the phrase and asserted that "there was nothing like 'agitational terrorism'".

The bi-annual 'durbar move' is more than a century-old practice of shifting the seat of the state government to Jammu for the winter months and to Srinagar in summer.

"There is nothing common between the two - terrorism and agitation," the chief minister told reporters after arriving at the secretariat.

General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Army's Northern Command Lt. Gen. B.S. Jaswal had last month said that though violence in Kashmir was on the decline since 2006, "agitational terrorism" was a cause for worry.

The term agitational terrorism refers to street protests and shutdowns that started with the Amarnath land row agitation in the Kashmir Valley last summer, halting normal life for weeks together.

Widespread protests in 2009 too rocked the state with the latest being over the alleged rape and murder of two women in Shopian.

The state's main opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) had denounced the term. PDP spokesperson Nayeem Akhtar had condemned the term and said the army was trying to snatch the right of the people to agitate.

Abdullah once again criticized the Indian Army for the Services' team backing out of the Ranji Trophy cricket match in Srinagar on grounds of security. He said "it was highly condemnable".

"My reaction was measured. I had wanted to use stronger words (to condemn the move)," he said.

"The context is very clear. On the one hand we have been highlighting improvement in the situation, which is true. And on the other hand Services skipped the match. This is highly unfortunate."

He said that recent VIP visits to the state, referring to visits by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Home Minister P. Chidambaram, "were reflective of the normalcy in the state".

On the government's proposal to withdraw prepaid mobile phone facilities in the state, he said that the central government should draw a distinction between "genuine subscribers and those who misused the prepaid mobile connections" and review it.

Asked about suggestions of his dissolving the assembly and becoming part of the dialogue process alongside the Hurriyat Conference, Abdullah said: "We want this dialogue process to be out of the glare of cameras".

Source: New Kerala.
Link: http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-147178.html.