Jammu: The entire Opposition Tuesday walked
out of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly accusing the state
government of carrying out mass arrests and human rights
violations.
As the Assembly proceedings began, Opposition parties
including PDP, BJP, Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party
(JKNPP) and Jammu State Morcha (JSM) stood up and raised
slogans against the government terming it as a `total failure`
on all fronts, including security and development.
The Opposition members, who stormed the well of the
House, also tried to disrupt the Question Hour demanding a
reply from the government.
PDP led by Mehbooba Mufti started the protest in the
Assembly during the Question Hour. PDP patron Mufti Mohammad
Sayeed was also present in the House.
PDP MLAs tore of the papers relating to the questions
and clashed with the watch and ward staff, who tried to take
them out of the House.
In the milee, PDP MLA Zulfikar Hussain received some
minor injury.
The Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone, however, intervened
and asked the watch and ward staff not to take out another PDP
MLA Javed Mir from the House.
Mehbooba Mufti had earlier given a notice to the
Speaker to adjourn the House over the issue of summer killings
in Kashmir and alleged mass arrests.
She had also demanded release of political prisoners
in the state but the Speaker ignored it and allowed the
Question Hour to commence.
Following this, the Opposition staged a walkout from
the House.
"We staged a walkout from the House in protest against
the failure of the state government on all fronts, including
security and development. The writ of the government does not
run. They are ruling the state by force with police and
security forces," Leader of the BJP Legislative party Chaman
Lal Gupta told reporters.
He also alleged that the government had ill-treated
the BJP leaders at Jammu Airport during `Ekta Yatra` and did
not allowed them to hoist the tricolour at Lal Chwok in
Srinagar.
There were also verbal duels between the Speaker and
PDP MLAs, including Mehbooba Mufti and Deputy Speaker Sartaj
Madni.
The Speaker said that it has been impressed upon all
the leaders of the political parties not to raise anything
during the Question Hour. He also reprimanded the Deputy
Speaker.
Undeterred by the protests of PDP, the Question Hour
continued. PDP later staged a walkout from the House.
There is an absence of democracy in the state as well
as in the House as they are using brute force inside and
outside the Assembly, Mehbooba later told reporters outside
the House.
There has been large scale mass arrests of youth, use
of brute force, over thousands of youths are languishing in
jails and government has turned a regime of arrests and
detention, she alleged.
PTI
