Farooq Abdullah raises doubts over Pulwama attack

Raising “doubts” over the February 14 Pulwama suicide bombing in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district that killed 40 CRPF soldiers, regional National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Saturday asked why didn’t Prime Minister Narendra Modi visit the families of slain jawans?

“Many Indian soldiers were killed in Chhattisgarh, but Modi ji never went to meet their families. And when 40 CRPF personnel lost their lives he raised a storm over it. I have my doubts about that as well,” Abdullah chief said without clarifying the nature of his doubts.

Speaking at a party conference in Srinagar, the NC president while taking a jibe at Modi said, “The Mission Shakti shot down a live satellite as the Lok Sabha elections are around the corner but a similar button crashed a helicopter and killed six IAF personnel in Budgam.”

Questioning the Budgam crash, Abdullah said, "Today, when there is an election, he (Modi) pressed the button to show as if (Hindu deity) Hanuman ji has come himself. A similar button was pressed, which made a helicopter crash and killed six of our jawans.”

“All the credit is due to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the successful launch of A-SAT missile. It was Manmohan ji who successfully launched the anti-Satellite Missile, but he never took credit for it,” Abdullah, also a three-time chief minister of J&K, said.

He also lashed at the PM for failing to create jobs for the people. “PM Modi had promised that he will give two crore jobs to the youth in a year, which makes 10 crore in five years. Where are those jobs? PM had also promised to reduce the price of petrol, diesel and, LPG but nothing happened,” he rued.

Abdullah also said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which once had the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya as its main issue, has forgotten about it after the air strike carried out by the Indian Air Force (IAF) at terror launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan.