National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah on Saturday, April 29, once again insulted the Indian security forces, claiming that repeated mention of of the Kupwara martyrs was an insult to Muslims. He was referring to the terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in the Kupwara district of J&K in which three Indian soldiers were martyred and two terrorists were also killed.
This is not the first time Abdullah has insulted the Indian security forces in some manner or the other. Before the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-elections, he had said that stone-pelters in J&K were "fighting" for their "nation." And yet he had managed to win that bypoll, never mind the fact that the voter turnout was a mere seven percent.
Recent transgression
Abdullah's latest transgression came at a meeting on Saturday, where he said: "The noise is not so much about 25 CRPF jawans getting killed in Chhattisgarh, rather, the noise is about three Army men killed in Kupwara.They are beating the drum to increase hatred towards Muslims, please keep this in mind."
He was also critical of the ban on several social media sites across the Valley, saying: "I called on the government and told them don't take such types of measures. They are mistaken that the by imposing ban, conditions will improve. The situations will not improve until and unless talks are not held with all. They think they can suppress us with force. The more they try to suppress it, the more fire it will create."
Where Farooq Abdullah is wrong
Farooq Abdullah's mere suggestion that more "noise" was being made about the Kupwara attack may be fundamentally wrong. And there are several developments that have taken place since the Sukma encounter in Chhattisgarh that can prove him wrong.
For starters, the BJP has not overtly celebrated its win in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections. Additionally, cricketer Gautam Gambhir has pledged hefty sums towards the welfare of the families of those martyrs. He must also remember that outrage over the martyrdom over security personnel – be they in J&K or Chhattisgarh – is never "noise." Like we said, it is outrage.
