Kashmiri journos condemns BJP minister’s remark, PDP seeks arrest

SRINAGAR: The Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG) on Saturday condemned former minister and BJP leader Choudhary Lal Singh’s statement threatening Kashmiri journalists while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) urged governor NN Vohra to immediately book and arrest the former minister terming him a serious threat to state’s communal harmony.

“KEG has condemned the criminal statement of Singh who has issued a direct threat to the Kashmir media. Singh, who was earlier being termed as a serious sufferer of foot-in-mouth disease, has moved way ahead and issued a direct threat to the media in Kashmir,” a spokesman of the KEG said in a statement.

PDP general secretary Mansoor Hussain Sohrawardy in a statement issued here said keeping in view Lal Singh’s continuous rants against the people of Kashmir and trying to stoke the communal passions in the state, it is highly unfortunate that elements like him are allowed to roam freely. “His statement against the scribes is condemnable, bizarre and malicious and merit immediate action against him as per the law of the land. We urge the governor administration of the state to immediately book and arrest Lal Singh for his instigative comments and jibes against the Kashmiri scribes as vicious elements like him if allowed to roam freely would turn the situation into an inferno and have a tendency to tear apart state’s secular fabric,”he said.

Singh, a BJP MLA, has warned Kashmiri journalists to draw a line between reporting facts and supporting terrorists or face the fate of Rising Kashmir editor Shujaat Bukhari, who was shot dead by militants