Not ready to do politics over 109 deaths: Omar

SRINAGAR: Refusing to be drawn into political gamesmanship, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said he was saddened more than anybody else over the 109 deaths during the ongoing unrest, which he feels is like somebody had “pulled out 109 pieces from my heart”.

“I am not ready to do politics over the 109 deaths, I am not ready to change the condolence resolution into a political resolution, but me and my God know that I am saddened more than anybody else here about the loss of precious lives,” Omar said while responding to the points raised by opposition members in the Assembly here.

“I feel like somebody has put a hand into my chest and pulled out 109 pieces from my heart. Somebody fired the bullets (which killed the youths) but I feel like the gun was on my shoulder,” Omar said.

The chief minister was concluding the obituary references for former legislators and those killed in the ongoing unrest in the state.

Responding to the demand for action against erring security force personnel, he said he will not allow the sacrifices of the youth go waste.

“If the state is benefited by these sacrifices, I will feel it is much better than the death penalty to the culprits... If the state benefits, I feel these sacrifices have not gone waste,” he said.

Omar said there was a tradition of the chief minister responding to the points raised and the allegations levelled by the opposition parties but he would change that tradition today.

“Media mai do char din pitonga koi baat nahi, teen mahinay se pit-ta aa raha hoon do char din aur sahi (I will be thrashed in the media for a couple of days, but it is okay as they have been thrashing me for the last three months),” Omar said.

Omar said he will speak on political issues if the Speaker allows a discussion on some other day during the current session.

It has become a tradition to play politics over deaths as some do it through speeches while some other by tying black armbands, the chief minister said in an apparent reference to PDP President Mehbooba Mufti and independent MLA from Langate Sheikh Abdul Rashid.

Rashid had donned a black armband as a mark of protest against the recent deaths in the Valley.

Paying tribute to cloudburst victims in Ladakh region, he said the natural calamity was a result of global warming which cannot be ignored any further.

“The experts, I spoke to, have said that there was no guarantee that such an incident will not take place again,” he said calling for efforts for reversing the effects of global warming.

Omar said a lot of effort has to be put into rehabilitating cloudburst victims before the onset of winter. “We have shifted people living near the river, but a lot more has to be done so that the people do not face hardships during winter.”

He also paid tributes to former vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, former state minister Sheikh Ghulam Mohammad Bhaderwahi, former legislators Shahjanhan Dar, Kumari Shanta Bharti and K C Sharma who passed away since the last Assembly session in March