Srinagar Aug 31: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the government of trying to revive the Ikhwanis (pro-govt gunmen) and use them to divide people on religious and sectarian lines.
“After having failed to follow up on its conspiracy to create a Muslim-Sikh wedge to distract attention from its gross failures, the government has now started working on the Shia-Sunni front,” senior PDP leader Moulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari said in a statement today.
Giving details of “the dangerous plan”, Moulvi said Ikhwanis had been pressed into service in areas with mixed population of the two sects. He said a meeting was held the other day in the home of the notorious and dreaded Ikhwani, Qasim Khaar in Nowgam village of Sonawari area to shape a group in the name of Shia community. “Notorious Ikhwanis under the leadership of Padam Shri Muma Kana and with the tacit support of the National Conference have been included in this group of twenty odd people,” he said and added that the group has been assigned the task of targeting selected people in various localities to fuel sectarian unrest. 
 He alleged that a senior minister in the NC-Congress coalition was playing key role in regrouping the Ikhwanis.
 Moulvi, however, expressed confidence that people would defeat the latest government design to divide them on religious and sectarian lines. “The government machinations would meet the same fate as its earlier efforts in the face of our alert and conscious people,” he said.
 Moulvi said while the Ikhwanis will certainly not succeed in sowing the seeds of discord between the Muslims of the state, it is necessary to be on vigil against their actions. The government he said might try to do something more desperate to defame the people of Kashmir as they have been trying to do recently by raking up Sikh security issue or calling an entire community as stone-pelters. He said the crimes of the present government have now assumed very serious dimensions and the unholy effort to create fissures among the Muslim community are the most reprehensible.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST