People in rest of India should ensure safety of Kashmiris: Farooq Abdullah

Srinagar: Safety of Kashmiri students across the country should be ensured by the people of the respective places, National Conference President Farooq Abdullah said in Srinagar on Tuesday.

"It is not the Chief Ministers who can do anything. It is the people of India who must realise. It is for them to protect the people of Kashmir," Abdullah said.

He was commenting on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to all Chief Ministers to ensure safety of Kashmiri students in their states. Modi had made the appeal on Monday at a meeting of Chief Ministers after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti raised the issue.

"It is not the question of government, it is the question of people of India who will have to honour and protect the students and the people of Kashmir in the rest of the country," the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir said.

Modi had made the appeal against the backdrop of thrashing of six Kashmiri students of Mewar University in Rajasthan by some locals last week.

Abdullah also slammed a top police official of J&K for his certain comments about nomads against the backdrop of an assault on a nomadic family and demanded action against him.

Inspector General of Police, Jammu, SD Singh Jamwal had said that the nomads should take proper permission from the authorities for moving their herds to avoid incidents like the recent one in which a family was assaulted by some people on the suspicion that they were ferrying cows for slaughter.

"The first tragedy was the statement of IGP Jammu. I condemn that. He said they did not have any permit to move. When did we have permit for these people to move their herds towards the cooler pastures? They (nomads) always move their herds towards the pastures in the summer because they could not keep them in Jammu," Abdullah said.

"Permits were never issued," the former Chief Minister told reporters Srinagar. The statement of the police officer came after an attack on a nomad family in Reasi area of Jammu allegedly by cow vigilantes.

"They (nomads) should have permission from the concerned deputy commissioner and they should move during the daytime so that there is security and people will know that they are moving in legalized manner," Jamwal said while commenting on the Reasi attack.

Jamwal said the Police Headquarters has issued an advisory to all police stations to see that such movements take place in a legalized manner.

Demanding action against the official, Abdullah emphasised that police have to protect the people rather than blame them.

"Had I been the Chief Minister, I would have sacked him (IGP) for his statement," he said.