To counter the rallies of Congress and National Conference, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) today organised a strong show at Baramulla to display the strength of the party in the border town which has fielded Nizam-ud-din Bhat, a journalist-turned-politician from the constituency.Hundreds of PDP workers who had come from far-flung areas of north Kashmir showed up at Carriapa park in the morning and greeted PDP leaders with slogans and waving of flags.In her address, PDP chief Mehooba Mufti said gunfire should stop in the Valley and all disputes should be resolved through meaningful dialogue. ‘‘Valley people are yearning for peace and their dreams of seeing the Srinagar-Muzuffarabad road opened will soon come true. By August 15, the Srinagar-Muzuffarabad road closed since partition will be thrown open,’’ said Mufti.Defending the human rights abuses which took place during the coalition government, Mufti said the National Conference ruled for 50 years in the state and lot of human rights violations took place. ‘‘The past one year of our governance is sufficent to gauge the fact how we brought down incidence of human rights violations. We took reins of power not to govern the people but to serve them,’’ she said.Lashing out at National Conference president Omar Abdullah, the firebrand PDP leader said Omar along with other Parliament memebers of his party never bothered to highlight the plight of the Kashmiri people in Parliament.‘‘Gujrat riots proved the NC’s love for Muslims. It was Omar Abdullah who defended Modi and now the party is crying over the miseries of the Kashmiri people,’’ the PDP president, adding that NC was always opposing peace talkswith Centre and Hurriyat. ‘‘When the Centre wanted to talk with separatists, it was Farooq Abdullah who threatened to resign from the government,’’ said the PDP president. Finance Minister and Baramulla MLA Muzaffar Hussain Beig asked the BJP leaders to desist from making statements for abolishing Article 370.
