By IANS,
Jammu : Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad wants tough stand against terrorism in India.
“Terrorists are terrorists,” Azad said, adding the terrorists, whether locals or foreigners, should be dealt with firmly.
He said the police forces in the rest of the country would benefit a lot if they worked in cooperation with the police from Jammu and Kashmir that have a vast experience in dealing with terrorism.
Azad, also a former union minister, said the 2008 assembly elections were historic because of the unexpected large turnout of voters but the terror attacks in Mumbai have overshadowed them.
“The Mumbai terror attacks have clouded the 2008 polls (in Jammu and Kashmir),” Azad told reporters Wednesday evening in this winter capital of the state, where assembly polls are on.
Surprising many, more than 60 percent voter turnout has been recorded in the first three of the seven phases of the election despite Muslim separatists’ boycott call.
Shocked over the “scale of the terror attacks in Mumbai for three days” last week, Azad said the mayhem eclipsed everything else.
“The global attention turned toward the terror attacks. The elections, which attracted long queues at the places considered out of reach of the voters or where the electorate were seen as hostages to the will of the separatists and militants, were relegated to obscurity.”
The Congress leader said there was a sea change in the attitude and approach of the people during the ongoing elections.
“This election could have made its mark in the world newspapers and media… the way people turned out to vote, voice their aspirations for development, road connectivity, bridges, water and electricity.”