In the run-up to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, former Chief Ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti are back to being arch-rivals after a short stint of Twitter friendship.
Omar Abdullah lashed out at the recent visits of Mehbooba Mufti to the families of slain militants and called it an opportunistic move.
After demanding justice for the sister of a militant from Pulwama, Mehbooba had visited another slain militant's family on Thursday.
Omar called Mehbooba an "architect of Operation All-out" to wipe out militants since 2015 and took a jibe at her for now meeting their families.
The architect of "Operation All-out" & the overseer of the operations that killed hundreds of militants since 2015 is now going from one militant home to the next trying to rehabilitate a badly damaged reputation.
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) January 3, 2019
Omar also accused Mehbooba of using militants to first forge a friendship with BJP and now, using them to appease the gullible voters.
She used militants by sanctioning their deaths to appease the BJP and now she uses dead militants to try to appease the voter. Just how gullible does she think people are? — Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) January 3, 2019
Mehbooba reacted to Omar's jibes by reminding him that as an Opposition leader, he should have gone to visit the families of slain militants, which he did not do.
It was your duty as an opposition leader to reach out to these families , just like I did during your tenure as CM. I visited families that lost members who were killed during fake encounter at Manchil , during 2010 unrest & Shopian rape and murder case .
— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) January 3, 2019
In reply, Omar said:
That's the problem you only reach these people in opposition. Unlike you I prefer not to exploit their pain while in opposition only to forget all about it in power. Different horses for different courses....... — Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) January 3, 2019
The latest Twitter banter follows a series of likes and retweets that both Omar and Mehbooba shared after they jointly claimed to form a government and blamed Governot Satya Pal Malik for not receiving the letter.
Sajad Lone, who is considered to be close to BJP, meanwhile criticised both Mehbooba and Omar for the blame game.
The two dynasties r at it again. Enacting theatre. A month or so back both were squeaky clean. Now the gloves r off. Accuse each other by the day confer by the night. Winking on twitter hoodwinking en masse. One has 2010 to his credit the other has 2016 to her credit. https://t.co/yWkvOUxEOJ
— Sajad Lone (@sajadlone) January 3, 2019
The Peoples Democratic Party sources told International Business Times, India that Mehbooba Mufti would visit the families of militants in the coming days as part of an election strategy.
