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PDP condemns attack on Rouf Bhat

KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 6/15/2013 1:32:12 AM

Cautions govt against inaction

SRINAGAR, Jun 14: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) condemned the attack on its Srinagar district vice president Abdul Rouf Bhat whose car was destroyed near his Solina residence last night.
According to a PDP handout, the attack came hours after Rouf had convened a meeting of party workers at his residence after which some of the workers held a peaceful demonstration against the Chief Minister’s close associate Davender Singh Rana for, what it was described as “his baseless allegations against the PDP.”
“Rouf’s car was completely destroyed and given the circumstances of the incident it looks obvious that the attackers had some kind of a government cover as otherwise such a attack could not have been possible in densely populated place like Solina,” the PDP handout added.
The spokesman of the party said that immediately after learning about the attack senior party leaders led by Syed Mohammed Altaf Bukhari visited Rouf’s house and conveyed solidarity of the party and its leaders to him. The spokesman said that immediate meeting of the party district committee Srinagar was held in which it was resolved that party would continue its fight against the repression of the ruling party which enjoyed the patronage of the government agencies.
Demanding a thorough and prompt investigation of the incident for which an FIR had been already lodged in police station Shergari the spokesman said the government would not be allowed to hush up this case and it would have to come out with full facts.
The spokesman said that if the government failed to immediately nab the culprits the responsibility for any consequences would squarely fall on the government.
The party also reiterated its demand to conduct investigation into the business deals of Davender Singh Rana during his tenure as the Advisor to Chief Minister. The Spokesman said the unusual performance of the business owned by Rana was already a subject of public debate and unless the government conducted a probe and come out clean on the subject, fingers could be raised even against the Chief Minister for the obvious proximity between the two. He said the phenomenal rise reportedly recorded by Rana in last five years in his business had by many quarters been attributed to the unlimited powers that he enjoyed as the advisor to Chief Minister.
Referring to the complaint of monopoly assumed by Rana on the cable networks of Jammu & Kashmir the spokesman said there had been many protests by other cable operators about the wrong practices adopted by Rana. The spokesman said that it was also reported that the set top boxes provided recently to the consumers were being sold at exorbitant prices to directly benefit Rana and the government had not taken any notice of these complaints.
The monopoly created by Rana over the business, according to the spokesman had hit the cable channels of Kashmir hard as they had not been allowed to run news and current affairs programme.
“This is in stark contrast to the freedom of programme schedules enjoyed by Rana for his channel in Jammu,” the spokesman said adding this matter would be taken with the government of India to enforce discipline in the cable network to provide a level play field to all service providers in the state.