Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 7: National Conference today expressed deep anguish and concern over slapping of Public Safety Act (PSA) on two former Chief Ministers, including Omar Abdullah and other mainstream leaders, describing it as most disturbing, unfortunate and highly condemnable.
In a joint statement issued from Sher-e-Kashmir Bhawan here this morning, senior leaders said the stringent measure against the senior party leadership is shocking especially in view of its huge contribution in ensuring peace and harmony, braving numerous odds. They recalled the fervent appeal made by Omar Abdullah minutes before his detention on August 4, 2019 midnight, urging people to maintain peace and calm at all costs for larger interest of the people.
“How could leaders with such a vision and statesmanship be threat to peace, who have remained in the forefront to promote harmony and brotherhood?” the statement asked, terming the latest move as imposition of PSA on the entire mainstream political ideology of Jammu and Kashmir.
Referring to the slapping of PSA on Dr Farooq Abdullah earlier and its another three month extension, the NC leaders said the continued detention of a five time former Chief Minister and Union Minister is sad and unfortunate, especially in view of his immense contribution towards nation building and sustaining peace, amity, harmony, democracy, progress and development of Jammu and Kashmir during most testing times.
The statement urged the Centre to review the decision of stringent PSA on mainstream leaders and release all those detained unconditionally.
Besides Provincial President Devender Singh Rana, those who were present in the meeting, included Ajay Kumar Sadhotra, Surjeet Singh Slathia, Rattan Lal Gupta, Mushtaq Ahmed Bukhari, Sheikh Bashir Ahmed, Rachpal Singh, Th Kashmira Singh, Khalid Najeeb Suharwardy, Abdul Gani Malik, Javeed Rana, Babu Rampal, Sajjad Kichloo, Jagjeevan Lal, Qazi Jalal-ud-Din, Sheikh Abdul Rehman, Dr Chamanl Lal Bhagat, T S Wazir, Ajaz Jan, Haji Mohd Hussain, Bimla Luthra, Satwant Kour Dogra, Prem Sagar Aziz, Brij Mohan Sharma, Bushan Lal Bhat, Ch Rahim Daad, Master Noor Hussain, Deepender Kour, Vijay Lochan, , Abdul Gani Teli, Jugal Mahajan, Ch Haroon, Mohinder Singh, Anil Dhar, Bashir Ahmed Wani, Gurdeep Singh Sasan, Vipan Pal Sharma, Ch Liaquat Ali, Dr Kamal Arora, Dr Gagan Bhagat, Ch Mohammad Shafi, Vijay Laxami Dutta, Swarn Latta, Dharamveer Singh Jamwal, Pardeep Bali, Reeta Gupta, Tanveer Ahmed Kichloo, Sajjad Shaheen, S S Bunty, and others.