Mirwaiz 'hoodwinking' people of Kashmir: NC

NC today raised strong objection to moderate Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq's criticism of its leader Omar Abdullah's speech at an event at New York University, and said the separatist leader was "hoodwinking" the people of Kashmir.
In a scathing attack on the Mirwaiz, the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (NC) said it did not require sermons from someone who was willing to break bread with intelligence officers in five star hotels in New Delhi.
The Mirwaiz's proximity to the establishment and intelligence apparatus in New Delhi was a "well-known fact" and his numerous secret rendezvous with the high and mighty in New Delhi belied his moralistic press statements in Kashmir, NC spokesperson Junaid Azim Mattu said in a statement here.

He was reacting to the Hurriyat's statement on the speech of NC working president Omar Abdullah at an event at New York University recently where he said Pakistan has to first withdraw army from the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) before the United Nations resolutions on holding a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir are implemented.
Reacting to Omar's speech, the Mirwaiz had said his "statement is along expected lines of double speak, hallmark of political parties supporting and promoting" the consolidation of India's control of Kashmir.
The NC spokesperson said Omar had the courage and stature to say openly and unambiguously what the Mirwaiz is known to have advocated behind closed doors in New Delhi as was revealed by Wikileaks.

Omar's speech in New York is only what the Mirwaiz and many others consider to be historically accurate, Mattu said.

The NC spokesperson said the Mirwaiz should stop "hoodwinking" the people of Kashmir by hiding his own reluctance to call a spade a spade behind the sanctity of a genuine political sentiment in the state.
"NC believes the restoration of the pre-1953 status and granting of autonomy to J-K is a pragmatic and holistic political solution. Omar has reiterated this while speaking in New York and the party will continue to struggle for the solution we have striven for since decades.

"Omar's remarks about the technical pre-requisites for a plebiscite - as established by the United Nations - are based purely on the content and conditions listed in the UNSC resolutions that Hurriyat leaders term to be the basis of their politics," Mattu said.