“Not yet. We have been kept waiting. As I have stated, we know how to keep patience,” he said.
Abdullah said if permission at Jantar Mantar is denied, the party will keep an alternate plan ready for the protest. “We will wait, and we will also keep our alternate plan ready. I have told my colleagues who expressed apprehensions about the permission that we will definitely go to Delhi on July 19. If we do not get permission for Jantar Mantar, we will sit and discuss there what to do. But we will leave for Delhi on July 19,” he said.Politics
Describing his uncle’s death as a very difficult time for the family and the party, Abdullah said, apart from being his father’s younger brother, Kamal had his own standing.
“He was an able doctor who treated poor patients all his life. Even when he was the Health Minister of J-K, he did not close his free clinic in Tangmarg and continued visiting there every week to treat the poor in the area,” he said.
Reflecting on the departed leader’s political career, Abdullah said Kamal first became an MLC and then an MLA in 1986. In 1997, Kamal was re-elected from the Tangmarg constituency, and subsequently won by-elections twice from Pattan and once from Hazratbal in 2009, he said.
The Chief Minister said Kamal touched the lives of many people in Kashmir throughout his life. “Such a huge number of people gathering here tells you that Kamal touched many people in his life, which we realise and we are thankful for that,” he said. (Agencies)
