Srinagar, Mar 28: Jammu and Kashmir National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah on Thursday questioned the timing of Home Minister Amit Shah's statement on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in J&K, calling it “election rhetoric to hoodwink people”.

Addressing a party workers’ convention in Sopore, Omar said, “The way people of Ladakh have been cheated over the restoration of Statehood and Sixth Schedule, Mr Shah is repeating the same formula in J&K. If New Delhi thinks everything is normal in J&K, even militancy and separatism are over, then it’s high time to remove AFSPA and withdraw troops. There should be no need to wait further.”

He asked why such announcements are being made now and not in all these ten years while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in power, Abdullah said that NC has been a strong votary of revocation of AFSPA and that he had started the struggle against its revocation in 2011. "(Then) Army Chief General VK Singh, who is now a minister in the same government, opposed my plans tooth and nail and sabotaged the program of cancelling AFSPA. They are out to deceive the public,” he alleged.

If the government is sincere enough in revocation of AFSPA, then why don't they make civilian movement easier on the highway, he said, adding that people are being stopped on the highway for hours altogether.

“Let them first start with this measure and give people travelling on the highway a sigh of relief, then we will accept that they are serious in AFSPA revocation," he said, "Hundreds of our youth are locked up in prisons outside J&K. First do the work of bringing them home and releasing them. But for now, I appeal to them to hold an inquiry into the fake encounters instead of paying lip service to find out who did these fake encounters.”

The former chief minister added, “New actions are being perpetrated today, whereby grandchildren of separatist leaders are being asked to publish secessionist advertisements in newspapers. Prime Minister Modi had said that they need to win hearts, but the hearts cannot be won by threats. People who distributed sweets, danced, sang, and celebrated Article 370 revocation are protesting. Only yesterday one of them went on hunger strike for 21 days and drank a glass of juice and said that we were better off with Jammu and Kashmir than to be rejoined with Kashmir."

 The NC Vice President accused the BJP of trying to bring A, B, C and D teams on the same stage. “The aim is to weaken the National Conference, but the way the Janata Party and its allies were beaten in 1977, the same fate awaits the present-day conspirators,” he asserted.