jj correspondent
Srinagar, Aug 22: Amid the ongoing uproar over non local voters, Peoples Conference Chairman Sajad Lone on Monday said they will sit on hunger strike in front of the Parliament if they feel there is a demographic intervention or the rights of the people of J&K are compromised.
He said they were not scared of the law and it was not a threat to them.
“We are scared of those who implement the law. We will wait until October 1 and if we believe something that tantamount to demographic intervention has been done we will sit on hunger strike in front of parliament and all constitutional institutes of India in Delhi,” Lone said during a press conference. “This battle cannot be fought in J&K… States have their own aspirations.”
“The law is not a threat to us. On test here are the intentions of those running the state here or from the Union government,” he added.
On the clarification by J&K government on the addition of extra voters claiming it includes those voting for the first time, Lone said as a party they neither accept the clarification given by the government in totality nor do they reject it.
PC leader and former Law Secretary Mohammad Ashraf Mir who attended the press conference said that J&K Election authorities assertions about addition of non-locals voters in electoral rolls of J&K are not supported by law.
Lone did not participate in the All Party Meeting called by Farooq Abdullah to discuss the addition of non local voters. He said if APM was a serious exercise it should not have been done in full media glare.
Lone said the outcome of the government decision with regard to the voters will not change whether they attend the APM or not.
He also hit out at PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti who he said was “desperate to retrieve her ground”.
He, however, stressed that in future if Farooq Abdullah needs them, he was just a call away.
On August 18, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference President Abdullah had invited leaders of all major political parties except BJP for a meeting on Monday at his Srinagar residence. UNI
