Have never harmed anyone, see no reason why anyone should try to harm me: Farooq Abdullah

Jammu, March 12 (IANS) In his first response to the unsuccessful assassination attempt against him, former Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah stated on Thursday that he has never held any animosity towards anyone, and wondered about the motives of the assailant. 

Speaking to reporters in his Bhatindi area residence in Jammu, Dr Abdullah said, “I have never harboured malice towards anyone. My doors are always open for everybody. People come to meet me. I listen to them, and whatever is possible, I try to help them. Even when I was the chief minister, I have never harmed anyone”.

The octogenarian leader said Union Home Minister Amit Shah called him on Wednesday evening. “He asked me how I was. I told him with the grace of Allah, I am fine. He said the assailant has been arrested and they will soon get to the bottom of this and let me know. I thanked him”.

Dr Abdullah refused to comment on whether the attack on him was part of some conspiracy. “How do I know that? It is for the investigators to find out that. So far as I am concerned, I don’t know the assailant and do not remember ever seeing him”.

He said he never knew the assailant, and he saw his photograph for the first time last evening on the mobile phone.

He was all praise for the J&K Police security personnel and the NSG commandos deployed for his protection. “I am grateful to the J&K Police security personnel and the NSG deployed for my protection. When the incident happened, I felt something hot on the back of my neck."

“Then I heard a sound, which I thought was a firecracker sound. The security men overpowered him, and while they deflected his arm, the shot fired from his pistol went up in the air. I was immediately taken to the vehicle. Later, I was told two shots had been fired. It was a marriage function attended by many important people, but there was no local police arrangement around the place,” he asserted.

Dr Abdullah said incidents like this are a result of terrorism, which is touching a new high in the country. I request the Central government and the L-G not to repeatedly say that things have returned to normal in J&K. We are not able to move freely,” he added.

Asked whether such an incident would not have happened if J&K had statehood, he said, “I would not say that, but I can say that there is an elected government in J&K, and it does not have power. Where is the statehood? They promised it in the Parliament and the Supreme Court. So many years have elapsed, and still we have no statehood,” he said.

He asserted that India is a democracy and everybody has the right to put forth their point of view.

“I don’t like what they (BJP) say, and they don’t like what I say. But, we have to co-exist, and that is the spirit of our democracy,” he said, adding that space for dissent in the country has narrowed down.

On the Supreme Court decision to grant bail to separatist leader, Shabir Shah today, he said, “I greet him on his bail. All of them should, in fact, be released and asked to work together for peace and welfare of the country,” he said.

--IANS

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