Situation in J&K normal: Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday informed the Lok Sabha that the situation in Jammu & Kashmir is "normal" and not a single death due to police firing was reported after abrogation of Article 370 from erstwhile state.

"As far as the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, the situation is completely normal. But, I cannot normalise the situation of Congress. Because, they had said that there will be a bloodbath after abrogation of Article 370 and the government would not be able to lift curfew from there for years. But, nothing happened," Shah said while replying to a query raised by Congress' Adhir Ranjan Chowdury.

Responding in the Question Hour, the Home Minister said not a single bullet was fired and not a single person died in police firing after the abrogation of Article 370 from the state on August 5, which gave special status to the erstwhile state which was carved into two Union Territories - Jammu and Kashmir with an Assembly and Ladakh without one.

Amid pandemonium created by the Congress, the minister said 99.5 per cent students participated in recently concluded exams in J&K.

On Ranjan's question that "political activity" will be seen as normalcy, Shah hit back at the leader, saying "he doesn't consider normalcy when students participate in exams, over 7 lakh OPD patients get health facilities, Section 144 is withdrawn from all police stations, no one killed in police firing and traffic flow is normal".

"He only considers political activity as normalcy. As far as political activity is concerned, over 40,000 Panchayat elections took place which was not done so far in their (Congress) regime. Later, all Block Development Council elections happened peacefully and over 95 per cent voting took place. Is this not political?" Shah said.

"As far as the release of political leaders from jail is concerned, I want to say that we don't want to keep anyone in jail for a single day. Whenever the administration in Jammu & Kashmir decides, they (politicians) will be released."

Shah mentioned that these leaders are in jail only for five-six months but Farooq Abdullah's father Sheikh Abdullah was put in jail by the Congress for 11 years when Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister.

"We don't want to follow their (Congress) path. Whenever J&K administration finds feasible condition, it will release them. We don't interfere in the functioning of the administration like them (Congress).

"We should be worried about the condition of some leaders who are in jail in Jammu & Kashmir, they do it and we also do it. But a message should go to the people of the Valley that Congress party worries about them and not only of political activity."IANS