Srinagar, Jul 13: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti Wednesday accused the Union government of turning Amarnath Yatra a “political issue” by allowing people to go on the pilgrimage in numbers far more in excess of what was recommended by a committee.
The Peoples Democratic Party
leader hit out at the Centre over the Amarnath flash flood which left 16 people
dead and over 30 missing, saying the environmental conditions do not permit
more than 5,000 pilgrims a day to visit the cave shrine.
Mehbooba, a former Jammu &
Kashmir chief minister, said the BJP made the yatra a political issue, instead
of letting it stay a religious one.
The environment does not
permit more than 5,000 pilgrims every day, but they sent thousands of people
there. The result was that the cloudburst took place, she said addressing a
party function here.
The PDP president alleged that
the administration was hiding the actual number of deaths in the incident that
took place on Friday.
We still do not know, because
they are not telling the truth. They are saying 15-16 were killed, but several
people are missing. The way motorcycles, dead horses are coming out of the
debris, and many people are still missing, it seems there is a huge loss, more
than what they are saying, she said.
Mehbooba said the government
allowed way more people than were recommended by a committee, only out of
stubbornness.
They kept on saying seven lakh
people will come and that it will go on for two months, even as there is a
committee report which said not more than 5,000 people should go up in a day,
not more than 1 lakh in total, and the yatra should go on for just a month, she
said.
It seems that they feel J-K does not belong to them, but to someone in the neighbourhood. They do not accept our accession, which was done on an equal level, they think we are someone else’s territory, which they have now taken over, Mehbooba said. (Agencies)
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