Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary today demanded that Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha should apologize to the people for the “physical manhandling” of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah by the J&K Police.
He said the alleged manhandling of the elected Chief Minister while praying tribute to July 1931 martyrs was an “insult to democracy and the mandate given by the people.”
“Whatever happened yesterday, whatever the police did, my leader – Omar Abdullah – is not just my leader, he is the elected Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. This wasn’t just an insult to Omar sahib.
This was an insult to democracy in Jammu and Kashmir, and in the entire country,” Choudhary told reporters in Srinagar.
He added that the incident had deeply hurt the sentiments of the people who had voted in the democratic process.
“This was an insult to the people’s mandate. The people of Jammu and Kashmir elected us and sent us to power. The way the Chief Minister was treated is unacceptable,” he said.
The Deputy CM also demanded an apology from Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha over the incident.
The Deputy Chief Minister said that LG Sinha yesterday “admitted” that he was responsible for the Pahalgam incident on April 22.
“Yesterday he admitted (about Pahalgam) after 82 days. And one day, LG sahib will also say that the police that is under his control, have also done wrong with Omar sahib. And for what happened yesterday, LG sahib should apologize to people, not to us, but to the people,” he said.
CM Omar visited the memorial in old Srinagar to pay tributes to Kashmiri protesters shot dead by Maharaja Hari Singh’s Dogra forces on July 13, 1931. Omar, who scaled the martyrs cemetery shared a video on X alleging grappling by cops.
