Yasin Malik and his men snatched our relief boat in Srinagar, say rescuers

Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik and his supporters have been accused of disrupting an Army rescue operation and later snatching a boat loaded with supplies in flood-hit Srinagar. Malik has denied the allegations.

A grainy video, shot by a Congress worker on September 13, purportedly shows the JKLF chief and some others asking relief workers to give them their boats in the Lal Chowk area.

"We had gone there to distribute grocery. We had four boats. Yasin Malik and his supporters were present there. They took away our boat and put in their belongings after which they left. Had they distributed the relief material among the people, it would not have been a different issue," said a rescue worker.

"Unfortunately, those who talk about the betterment of Kashmir abandoned the boat containing the relief material. They left their belongings in it too. It implies that they are playing with people's sentiment," the rescuer said.

Earlier, Army sources said Malik's men had disrupted an Army rescue operation and forced several women, said to be unwell, to disembark from boats despite their wishes.

But Malik said they did not snatch any boat from any rescue team. He also denied reports that his men pelted stones on Army teams.

Malik instead attacked the Omar Abdullah government for not issuing a flood warning.

"This is a failure of the state government. It didn't intimate people and left everybody to die," he said.