By IANS,
Jammu: On the day when the nation paid homage to the victims of Mumbai’s 26/11 terror attack on its first anniversary Thursday, most of the top Jammu and Kashmir leadership kept itself off the issue.
Jammu and Kashmir, which has been battling terrorism for the past 20 years that has left more than 50,000 people dead, did not find its top leadership – neither from the main ruling party National Conference nor the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party – paying tributes to the victims.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and other leaders of the two parties neither paid tributes nor did they issue any statement.
“It is shocking that the two main political parties in Jammu and Kashmir are shy of condemning terrorism,” said Rakesh Gupta, a student of Jammu University who participated in a rally to mark the occasion.
Barring BJP legislature party leader Chaman Lal Gupta, who in a statement asked the government to wake up to the “dangers of terrorism”, no other leader was visible at any of the rallies or functions.
It fell on the students of schools and colleges and the Jammu University to take out the rallies and draw attention of the nation toward the growing threat of terrorism to India from across the borders.