Srinagar, Sept 11: Jammu and Kashmir main opposition national conference today said the alleged links between senior PDP leader and Jammu and Kashmir agriculture minister Abdul Aziz Zargar and militants gave a "dangerous dimension" to the Kashmir issue and would have "disastrous connotations" if not checked. "Zargar episode has convinced the people that far from being fair, the assembly elections (last year) were rigged by the gun," NC president Omar Abdullah said addressing a gathering on the first death anniversary of former minister Mushtaq Ahmad Lone in Kupwara today.

Zargar resigned today amid allegations that Lashkar-e-Toiba militants who had carried out the attack on Akshardham Temple had planned the operation at his house in his native village. Abdullah demanded that the Mufti Mohammed Sayeed government make the report regarding the killing of Lone in public so that people could know the facts. Lone was killed by militants on the eve of elections last year.

Referring to the takeover of NC-controlled Muslim Auqaf trust by the government, Abdullah said "it was an illegal move which the NC will fight through legal means."

He said the government had no right to takeover religious places as this tantamounts to interfering with the religious sentiments of the people of Kashmir. Abdullah said if there were some financial irregularities of the trust, they should have been probed and exposed but the takeover had set a wrong precedence and would have wider ramifications all over the country.

Bureau Report