Remember 1987 arrest orders? Sajad Lone’s terse reminder to Farooq Abdullah over Yasin Malik praise

Sajad Lone on Friday called former chief minister Farooq Abdullah’s praise for Yasin Malik “utterly disdainful hypocrisy”. Farooq Abdullah on Thursday while praising Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik said he is ready to die but not to surrender before Delhi for the sake of self-respect of Kashmiris. 

“Yasin Malik despite being severely ill is languishing in jail because he is advocating a dialogue with India but is not willing to sell self-respect of Kashmiris. He has preferred death over surrender. I congratulate him for that,” Abdullah had said. He said this addressing an election rally in Devsar area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Kulgam district.

Sajad Lone commenting on Abdullah’s remarks said, “Do you really have the nerve to be talking about Yasin Malik? Can you jog your memory a bit and recall that did you not as Chief Minister in 1987 chase a young rebellious Yasin Malik from being a rebel within the political system to picking up arms? Was it not you as Chief Minister who imprisoned him before and after 1987 elections? Was it not you as Chief Minister who ordered his third-degree torture and tortured him so badly that his heart ailment worsened? Was it not you as Chief Minister who put a bounty of a few lakhs on his head? Have you forgotten all that? And 32 years later you are all praise for Yasin Malik and congratulating him for going on a hunger strike and his readiness to sacrifice his life.”

“If you are so much in love with what Yasin Malik is doing, why don’t you suggest the same to your son Omar Abdullah? Why doesn’t he go on a hunger strike and render a sacrifice as you suggest for Yasin Malik? Or are sacrifices only meant for other people’s sons?”

JKLF chief Yasin Malik, arrested in connection with alleged terror funding case was sent to judicial custody till May 24 by Delhi court on Wednesday. The court had earlier sent Malik to NIA custody. He was brought to New Delhi after a court in Kashmir granted his transit remand to the National Investigation Agency.