Srinagar, Jul 23 : Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone on Saturday demanded a free and fair probe in 1987 elections, a day after incarcerated chief of Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front Muhammad Yasin Malik claimed that he was tortured and kept in detention centre after being picked up from an election counting center then.
Talking to a group of reporters here, Lone, as per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), alleged that New Delhi is covering up the “rigging” of 1987 elections, which, he said, was the main source of all killings in Kashmir.
“Was Yasin Malik born with a gun in hand or did the situation compelled him to do so? I want to ask the Government of India why they want to cover-up the rigging of 1987. Why do they want to shield the National Conference? The youngsters who protested against denial of democracy in 1987 are either in graves or jail” Lone said.
He asked why New Delhi is not holding a probe in 1987 “electoral fraud” when its agencies like NIA are investigating decades-old minor cases in Kashmir.
In his letter-cum-will, Malik, who is lodged in New Delhi’s Tihar jail, has written that they had supported Muslim United Front but the authorities declared the winners as losers and losers as winners.
“I was apprehended and arrested from the vote counting station. I was remanded to the RED-16 interrogation centre where thanks to the torture, unhygienic meals and contaminated and stale water, my blood got infected, “Malik writes.
“Subsequently I was shifted to the Police Hospital where one of my heart valves got affected. Hundreds of members of our organization including myself were detained under the Public Safety Act. I landed up spending the entire year of 1987 in jail,” Malik further writes,
Lone said his party doesn’t agree with Malik’s thinking but he deserves a fair trial.
He also criticized PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti after she said that her sister did her duty by identifying Malik as one of her kidnappers in 1989.
“Mehbooba doesn’t have the right to talk about reconciliation and dialogue,” he said—(KNO)
