Was never in loop on Afzal Guru execution: Farooq Abdullah

Srinagar, Aug 24:

Jammu and Kashmir’s ruling National Conference (NC) patron Farooq Abdullah Sunday hit out at Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad for claiming that the elder Abdullah was in the loop when parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was hanged.

“The NC patron Dr. Farooq Abdullah Sunday accused former chief minister and Congress leader, Ghulam Nabi Azad of making allegations and distorting facts in the wake of his comments on the secret execution of Afzal Guru,” said an NC statement citing Abdullah, who is presently in London for medical tests.

“I am deeply disappointed at Ghulam Nabi Azad’s statement insinuating that I was in the loop over Afzal Guru’s execution. This is a very immature allegation, innuendoes, and full of lies,” the statement quoted Abdullah, who was a minister in the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance government as saying.

“We both were part of the cabinet and I in unequivocal terms had condemned this hanging.

“The fact of the matter is that the execution, as Azad himself states and implies, was shrouded in secrecy. All of us came to know about it after it had been carried out. I approached Azad and made it clear to him that we should jointly register our protest in front of the PM (Manmohan Singh).

“What Azad is saying is a clear distortion of facts and I condemn it,” he said.

Abdullah, a former state chief minister, said it was “deeply disappointing that a politician of a stature as Azad should feel the need to publicly distort the truth, cast aspersions and create doubts”.

“I unequivocally condemn Azad and his crass statement,” he said.

(IANS)