We only want Omar to step down, clarifies Mehbooba

Clarifying her stand on alleged custodial death of a ruling National Conference activist, opposition Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday said that her party was not demanding the dismissal of the state government on the issue, but only stepping down of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his junior home minister Nasir Aslam Wani to enable a fair investigation.

Mehbooba, whose party has been vociferously raking up the alleged custodial death of NC activist Sayeed Mohammad Yusuf, said the incident 'uncovers the dark side of Omar's government and the ruling National Conference'.

Mounting a scathing attack on the NC leadership, Mehbooba, while addressing a workers' convention in Sopore town, said, "The happenings at the chief minister's residence involving illegal transactions for political appointments and the death in mysterious circumstance of a family loyalist remove the façade of any commitment to people from the Abdullah's".

"The party under Dr Abdullah and Omar Abdullah has become a huge liability and a source of embarrassment for Jammu and Kashmir," she said.

"People have been suffering in silence or in protest without being able to get any reprieve from corruption, misgovernance and atrocities while the NC leadership assumes more arrogance and brazenness," she added.

"Instead of putting its house in order, the NC ruling family is only adding to the decadence of the party by selling political jobs and institutionalising a stinking culture of corruption at all levels," Mehbooba said.

She said 'any probe done by any agency would lack credibility till those who have been accused by the family of the deceased NC activist and witnesses hold on to power'.

"He was no ordinary person, but had access to the chief minister and Dr Farooq Abdullah who facilitated his entry to places which are out of bounds even for the ministers," she added.