New Delhi:
Congress today sought immediate clarification from the government over a letter which states that the release of separatist leader Masarat Alam was ordered on February 4, when Jammu and Kashmir was under Governor’s rule.
Now it is being claimed that on February 4 during central rule which in this case will also be Home Ministry rule Alam was released, party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters.
This contradicts the statements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the action taken by the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed government, he said.
The letter written by Jammu and Kashmir Home department to District Magistrate of Jammu has stoked a fresh controversy. It also puts both the Sayeed government as well as Governor N N Vohra in a piquant situation as the new dispensation was trying to claim credit for something done during Vohra’s tenure while the Governor is understood to be not aware of the move being undertaken by the state Home department.
“I think this is a very serious state of affairs. I think something is wrong somewhere. I am giving a chance to government to clarify. What I have said, both cannot be true,” Singhvi remarked.
Asked to comment on reported statement of former PCC chief Saif-Ud-Din Soz that the decision to release Alam was a correct one and the Congress party should not oppose, Singhvi said “There may be individual views which are purely personal.”
