Shah Faesal free to join NC: Omar Abdullah

Kulgam (Jammu and Kashmir): National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Tuesday gave an open invitation to former IAS officer Shah Faesal to join his party, saying that it was up to Faesal to decide how best he can serve the people.

“Shah Faesal is free to choose, he can go wherever he wants to. If he wants to join the National Conference, I can definitely get that arranged. He left the service to serve the people, he has to decide in what role he can do that in the best way possible,” Omar told media here.

Faesal, who made news after becoming the first Kashmiri to top the civil services exam in 2009, resigned on January 9 in protest against the “unabated” killings in Kashmir and “lack of any sincere reach-out from the Union government.”

In reply to a question pertaining to former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s visit to the kin of a militant, Omar said: “She can go anywhere, in that sense I think no one should have any objections with her visit. However, we have objections regarding why did she not visit these people when she was in power”.

On January 6, Mehbooba visited Rubina, sister of a terrorist, who was allegedly thrashed by policemen in Jammu and said the incident was unfortunate and should not happen again.

Omar added, “Back then, she was the Chief Minister, she was the head of the unified command, she had good relations with the Prime Minister, she had regular conversations with the Defence Minister. When she was in power, she could have done something for them but she never visited. Now that she is out of power when her party is unstable, she remembered them.”

He further stated that his party will not support the Army’s ‘Operation all-out’ against the militants in the state.

“Governor sahab has said there is no ‘operation all-out’. Anyways, we would not want there to be any operation that targets the people of the state. Instead of separating people, we would like to attract people towards us, know their grievances, understand why since 2014 so many youths resorted to guns, and find a solution,” said the former Chief Minister.

[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]