Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 16: BJP National Executive Member & State chief spokesperson, Dr Jitendra Singh has raised serious objection to National Conference-Congress Coalition Government’s systematic design to misrepresent facts related to Kishtwar riots by projecting the events of August 9 as an outcome of an “individual altercation”.
In a hard hitting statement issued here, today he regretted that the same version was also put forward by the Union Home Minister in the Parliament.
Dr Jitendra Singh also contested the contention that counter-insurgency Village Defence Committees (VDCs) were responsible for the violence. The VDCs rather deserve to be further strengthened in view of the prevailing fragile situation, he suggested.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, all available information suggests that the violence was sparked by anti-India elements waiting for an opportunity to foment trouble. After offering prayers on Eid, a procession carrying Pakistani flags and chanting ‘Azadi’ slogans marched towards the town’s Kuleed Mohalla, where miscreants pelted stones and assaulted residents of minority community, and when the latter resisted, the situation snowballed into a violent flare-up, he elaborated.
Dr Singh accused the Coalition Government and local Kishtwar administration of always indulging in a “balancing act” by apportioning equal blame to both sides even though in this case there was clearly one group of provocateurs. The communally motivated elements must be hunted down and put behind bars, he demanded. He said the N C led Government owes to explain why Kishtwar’s civilian administration was caught off guard in spite of intelligence reports that Pakistan-based terrorgroups such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba had sought to set up their networks in this town with the help of certain local communal elements, as a result of which terrorism and communalism have got mixed to create a social divide. Taking exception to the J&K Chief Minister’s habitually judgemental and biased approach, Dr Jitendra Singh said, as soon as the riot began and a senior BJP leader from Delhi urged the CM to look into the situation that was fast spinning out of control in Kishtwar, the CM’s first response on Twitter was “injuries and damage has taken place on both sides” and a day later he went on to make a suggestive statement that “two Muslims and one Hindu had died”.
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