Omar Abdullah: I have asked government to take action

“This matter is being taken up formally by me with the government of India for further action,’’ Omar said on the sidelines of a function in the city.

Army has paid all ministers in J&K for ‘stabilising’ the state,says V K Singh

“I think it is important that the government of India conducts threadbare inquiry and if there are findings,whatever they may be,should be shared with us.”

Omar described Singh’s statement as extremely unfortunate,and one that had only created untold problems for mainstream political parties in Kashmir.

“Most of us here have no financial dealings whatsoever with the Army,but these sorts of statements and accusations only cause great difficulties,” he said. Singh’s statements “require further investigations”,he said.

The chief minister said he had taken up the issue of action against Agriculture Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir with the Congress leadership. A secret Army inquiry has found that Mir accepted money from the Army’s secret funds to try to allegedly topple the J&K government. The National Conference has demanded Mir’s resignation.

“Mir is in the cabinet on the quota of the Congress,which is our ally. I have already taken up this issue with the Congress leadership,” Omar said.

People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti said the “revelations are confirmation of what an ordinary citizen of the state always held as a belief that everything in the state is remote controlled by powers outside the state”.

She said that the contents of the Army report were an insult to the people of the state. “It seems we are not treated as people with aspirations or political preferences but a class whose loyalties can be purchased through money and political favours.

“No one… has disapproved of these methods or denied their existence but justified them in the national interest,and are upset only on their becoming a public knowledge,” she said.