National Conference banking on 'bloodshed and boycott' for survival in Kashmir: PDP

Jammu and Kashmir opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Wednesday accused the ruling National Conference (NC) of "orchestrating" the latest spate of killings, and said the party is solely banking on "bloodshed and boycott" for its survival.

"(NC president) Farooq Abdullah's threat of attacking PDP cadres with bombs and bullets is being implemented by targeting the party's activists and the recent killings are part of the same gory game plan of the NC," Sayeed said at an election rally in Khansahab Assembly segment of Srinagar parliamentary constituency.

He said "perhaps not content with shedding innocent blood", NC's "cohorts" are using all "dirty tricks" to ensure poll boycott.

"We have information that several areas in South Kashmir have been flooded with bogus threatening posters and rumour mongers are having a field day to create panic among the people," he claimed, adding "innocent blood-letting" is timed only to benefit NC in the elections as the party is "solely banking on bloodshed and boycott for its survival".

The former Chief Minister alleged that NC "fuelled" a full-fledged armed uprising in the late eighties with the "massive rigging" of 1987 Assembly polls resulting in a tragic trail of death and destruction across the state.

"Desperate for survival, they are now trying to re-enact the same misadventure through bloodshed and enforced poll boycott," he said, cautioning that any such "machination" this time would have more dangerous consequences than what happened after the 1987 "rigged" polls.