Murder, graft & intrigue in J&K, Omar Abdullah under fire

Pressure is mounting on Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, his father and union minister Farooq Abdullah and his close confidante the junior home minister Nasir Aslam Wani to resign over the alleged custodial death of a National Conference (NC) activist Haji Mohammad Yousuf after the cash-for-favours deal went horribly wrong.

“It is sordid game of murder for money. There can be a fair investigation only when they are made to resign from their positions. As long as they are in power they will manufacture evidence, cajole doctors and use dirty tricks of blackmail to hush up the case. Therefore all the three, Omar, his father Farooq and close lieutenant Nasir Sogami should be asked to resign”, said Muzaffar Hussain Baig, senior leader of People’s Democratic Party

Sixty one year old National Conference activist Haji Mohammad Yousuf died on Saturday in police custody after he was picked up from the chief minister’s residence by Crime Branch sleuths for allegedly taking bribe from two other NC activists Yousuf Bhat and Abdul Salam Reshi.

Omar had allegedly asked the trio to visit his residence to look into the cases of money being paid and received to facilitate undue favours for the complainants from the government. 

Yousuf, who was regarded as close to Abdullah family, had allegedly promised the two other activists berths in the Legislative Council.

Under fire the J&K government has ordered a judicial probe and formally requested the chief justice of the High Court to appoint a sitting judge to conduct an enquiry into the circumstance leading to the death of Syed Mohammad Yousuf of Loktipora-Bijbehera in  south Kashmir.   

The deceased’s family has blamed junior home minister Nasir Aslam Wani for the incident. “He was called by Nasir to meet him. When my brother (in law) called him he heard sounds of heated arguments in the background and suddenly somebody snatched Yousuf’s phone. By 10.30 pm his phone was ringing but he was not taking the call and after that the phone was switched off”, said Syed Talib Hussian, Yousuf’s son.

Under pressure from PDP the government released the CCTV footage of Yousuf entering the CM residence and leaving the house, to prove that he did not die there. The footage showed Yousuf Shah leaving the residence. Three officers of special security group, guarding the CM have been shifted raising fears about their roles in the death.