Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone Wednesday expressed grief over the “killing” of a private school principal Rizwan Pandith in police custody and blamed “lack of accountability patronised by two traditional parties to safeguard their own interests” for such tragic incidents.
“The killingof a school teacher in police custody is unacceptable in a democratic setup andmust be condemned in strongest of terms. It is imperative for the governor’sadministration to conduct a fair and transparent inquiry into the reasons thatled to this unfortunate incident and punish those involved,” Sajad said in astatement.
“For peopleto be able to have belief in the system, justice must not only be done but seento be done as well,” he said.
“The cultureof impunity and lack of accountability started by two traditional politicalparties and their failure to hold erring police officers in the pastaccountable has led to normalisation of excesses,” he said, according to thestatement.
“The failureof NC and PDP to hold culprits to account is partly responsible for the deathof Rizwan Asad Pandith. This culture of immunity and impunity has to end forpeople to have any trust in the system. The judicial inquiry ordered in thisincident has to be time-bound and reach its final conclusion because the waythese two parties have used judicial probes to cool down tempers and buy time,”Sajad said.
NC’sopportunistic politics and the party’s insatiable thirst for power at any costhave been borne by the people of Kashmir over the past many decades, Sajadsaid.
“The election of 1987, which was rigged to impose NC on the people of Kashmir, was a collective murder that has spread over three bloody decades and cost us nearly one lakh innocent lives till now. It pushed the youth away from the mainstream and forced them to pick up the gun. NC’s thirst for power in 1987 and 1996 elections threw the state into the throes of turmoil and suffering,” he said.