Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR/JAMMU, Dec 5: Former Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah led the National Conference cadre to pay floral tributes to founder of National Conference, Late Sheikh Mohd Abdullah on his birth anniversary today.
Commemorative functions were held across the State, with main one held at his mausoleum (Mazar) at Naseem Bagh, at the bank of Dal Lake in Hazaratbal area of Srinagar. A Fateha Khawani was organised at the Mazar of Late Sheikh Abdullah. Dr Farooq and Omar Abdullah were among large number of NC leaders including former Ministers/ legislators and party functionaries to pay floral tributes to Sheikh Abdullah, a former Chief Minister of the State.
“The best tributes to Sher-e-Kashmir would be to leave no stone unturned to fight for the honour and dignity of our people who have suffered immensely due to various political machination, instability and turmoil,” Farooq said afger offering prayers at his father’s grave.
Omar Abdullah while paying tributes to his grandfather, said the party is committed to nurture his legacy of secular thinking and inclusive approach for one and all. ” The party continues to follow the path laid down by Sher-e-Kashmir which is to protect the identity and dignity of J&K and its people against forces hell bent to divide us on the basis of religion, region and language,” he said.
Meanwhile, National Conference Provincial president Devender Singh Rana today lashed out at the Congress and the BJP for playing villains to democracy in J&K state, which was literally nurtured and sustained by towering leader Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah over the years.
Leading party leaders and workers in paying homage to the Late Abdullah on his 113th birth anniversary at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhavan Jammu today, Rana said, “The Congress made repeated assaults by conspiring against democratically elected Governments in 1953 and 1984, to quote a few, in a bid to weaken democracy in J&K and the BJP’s recent dubious role will also go as a bad chapter in the annals of democratic history of Jammu and Kashmir”.
Senior leaders- Ajay Sadhotra, Surjeet Singh Slathia, Thakur Kashmira Singh, Sheikh Abdul Rehman, Brij Mohan Sharma, Qazi Jalal-ud-Din, Vijay Bakaya, Sheikh Bashir Ahmed, Tarlochan Singh Wazir, Deepender Kour, Dr Chaman Lal Bhagat, Bimla Luthra, Master Noor Hussain, Ram Pal, Vijay Lochan, Gurdeep Singh Sasan, Vijay Laxami Dutta, Satwant Kour Dogra, Surinder Singh Bunty and others paid floral tributes to Sher-e-Kashmir.
Rana said the conspiracies have all along failed and the National Conference has, in fact, emerged stronger after every political assault due to support of the people in all the three regions of the State. “Now that the elections are round the corner, National Conference under the leadership of Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah will go with renewed strength to the people and shall seek mandate for a strong and stable majority Government in the State”, he said, adding that the people want a single-party Government as dispensations with crutches cannot satiate their political, developmental and economic aspirations.
Urging the cadre to gear up for the elections, Rana said emergence of a strong National Conference will steer out the state to peace, prosperity and development. He cautioned against conspiracies to divide the people on religious, regional and caste lines and said maintaining the unity and single entity of Jammu and Kashmir will be a befitting tribute to Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah.
The speakers while paying tributes recalled the glorious role of Sheikh Sahib in strengthening amity and regional unity at a time when the entire sub-continent was in communal frenzy. “We are proud inheritors of this legacy”, they maintained.
The 113th birth anniversary of Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah was also observed at all the district headquarters of the Jammu region including Poonch, Rajouri, Doda, Ramban, Kishtwar with local functionaries paying floral tribute to Late Abdullah. In Kargil, the NC district unit president Haji Mohd Hanifa Jan CEC and other functionaries also paid tributes to Late Sheikh Mohd Abdullah.
Meanwhile, CPI(M) state secretary Ghulam Nabi Malik, senior Congress leader G N Monga and other office bearers and Sher-e-Kashmir College of Education, Gadigarh, Jammu also paid floral tributes to Sheikh Mohd Abdullah.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
