Farooq sees PDP conspiracy behind Budgam attack

Former NC chief Farooq Abdullah led the charge against the PDP on the last day of campaign today, alleging ‘‘authoritative sources...

Former NC chief Farooq Abdullah led the charge against the PDP on the last day of campaign today, alleging ‘‘authoritative sources’’ had it that the PDP was behind the attack on his cavalcade in Budgam last week.

Abdullah exhorted voters to ignore the threat letters to boycott the polls, which were ‘‘forged’’ by the PDP. NC president Omar Abdullah is contesting from Srinagar, against the PDP’s Ghulam Nabi Lone.

Farooq said ‘‘authoritative sources’’ had told him that the state government was behind the attack on his cavalcade in Budgam last week.‘‘I’m not going to take it lying down any more. Farooq Abdullah has changed now. I will pull down the Mufti government if they don’t stop fooling Kashmiris,’’ he said.

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Abdullah junior alleged that Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was in league with the Centre to deter voters from turning out on Monday. ‘‘If Delhi is sincere, they should ensure reduction in the violence and the only way to do that is to dissociate itself from this conspiracy,’’ Omar said.

At Nagam, a village near Budgam, Omar took a swipe at Mufti Sayeed over his government’s ‘‘extravagance’’. ‘‘You have a jumbo-size Cabinet which spends Rs 1.5 crore on just perks and then Mufti sahib spends Rs 3.5 crore on his Maulana Azad Road residence, another Rs 1 crore on his Bijbehara residence and another Rs 1 crore on his Naugam residence. How can he give jobs to the unemployed?’’ he said.

He said PDP was misleading people on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road. ‘‘They won’t tell you that the area from Uri to the border is heavily mined. The PDP’s gesture can’t reopen the road, it can only be after India and Pakistan are able to resolve to do so.’’