Mehbooba Mufti charges NC with village headman's killing

Mehbooba Mufti, opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president, Friday accused the ruling National Conference (NC) of the murder of a PDP village headman who was gunned down in south Kashmir's Pulwama district Thursday.

Addressing a media conference in summer capital Srinagar Friday, Mehbooba Mufti who is contesting the Lok Sabha election from south Kashmir's Anantnag constituency said: "Yesterday (Thursday) at 2.30 p.m. Farooq Abdullah said in a statement if he had bombs and guns he would target PDP leaders as they deserved to be taught a lesson.

"Same night yesterday at 11.30 p.m. a PDP sarpanch was killed in Gulzarpora in Pulwama district. This is one instance. Some days back Farooq Abdullah accused PDP of getting NC workers killed since 1996."

Police said that village headman Muhammad Amin Pandit was killed by separatist guerrillas in Gulzarpora (Awantipora) village of Pulwama district.

Police said militants shot him outside his house in the village.

"We have been watching helplessly as the election commission takes notice of every inflammatory statement in any part of the country be it Amit Shah, be it Azam Khan. But when it comes to J&K state, we have been writing to them time and again that the NC has been making inflammatory statements...

"All the complaints we have been making to the election commission...It seems that the election commission is not at all serious about Jammu and Kashmir."

The PDP president said she is once again appealing to the election commission to take cognizance of these complaints.