Support Centre’s actions but innocents should not be harmed:  Ruhullah

Anantnag : National Conference MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi on Tuesday said he supports the Centre’s actions to bring perpetrators of the Pahalgam attack to justice and appealed to the government to ensure no innocent is harmed in the process.”We are with any action, whatever way it is taken, that revolves around justice,” Mehdi told reporters here in south Kashmir.The Lok Sabha MP from Srinagar visited the family of ponywala Adil Hussain Shah who was one of the victims of last week’s Pahalgam terror attack.

“I do not want to do politics or comment over what steps the Centre is taking. The Government of India should do whatever is possible to bring the culprits to justice and give justice to those innocents who were killed,” he saidHowever, the MP said, the government should make sure that while the culprits are hunted and punished, innocent people are not harmed.”For that, the Government of India and the forces here should keep in mind that no innocents like labourers, ponywalla, taxi drivers, are harmed in the process. If even a single innocent is harmed, it defeats the whole idea of justice. I request that the reaction be based on bringing justice… innocents should not be affected,” he said.

Mehdi said the country’s reaction to the attack — in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed — “should centre around justice”.”We are with justice, we are with that reaction. We want a united voice to be raised across the world for justice and that the people of J-K get a permanent respite from this violence. The people of J-K are the biggest losers in this irrespective of religion.”We are the victims and we want the ways for peace to be found. The people of J-K will be the beneficiaries of peace. So, we are with the country in its reaction — be it diplomatically or through some other ways,” he said.

After the April 22 Pahalgam attack, authorities in Jammu and Kashmir have launched a major clampdown against the terror ecosystem, raiding hundreds of places, detaining scores of suspects and razing homes of terrorists.To a question about J-K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s refusal to ask for statehood for political gain in the face of the tragedy, Mehdi said it was right as the assembly session was for called for paying tributes to the victims of the terror attack.”It was a session to pay tributes and if he (Abdullah) thought it right not to talk about statehood, then it is right. But, it (statehood) is an issue that needs to be addressed…,” he said.