Srinagar, May 16:
NC vice president Omar Abdullah Thursday condemned the killing of a person who was allegedly attacked by cow vigilantes in Jammu and Kashmir’s Bhaderwah valley, saying the frequency and severity of such violence has been a “dreadful hallmark” of the Modi-led central government. “I urge the incumbent administration to initiate a time-bound inquiry into the incident and bring the perpetrators of the heinous crime to book,” the former chief minister said in a statement. “Meantime I also urge the people to maintain traditional camaraderie and brotherhood. In this hour of grief, I pray for strength to the bereaved to bear the loss,” he said. Curfew was clamped in Bhaderwah valley in Doda after members of a community attacked a police station and damaged several vehicles in protest against killing of a person who, they alleged, was targeted as he was involved in cattle trade.
The Doda district administration, however, ruled out cow vigilantism as the reason behind the murder and said that some people were trying to give communal colour to the incident to flare up the situation.
Abdullah said the self-anointed vigilantes, knowing that there is no one to reprimand them, are rampantly indulging in such gruesome acts.
“The utter laid back attitude of the incumbent central and state government gives an impression that there is a tacit alliance between the two,” the NC leader alleged.
“The incident of Bhaderwah cannot be singled out; yesterday a Muslim in Assam was coerced to eat pork. Had the incumbent central government properly reined in these elements, such incidents would not have been recurring time and again,” he added.
