Sajjad Kitchloo promises all help to Kishtwar victims

After being re-inducted as Deputy Home Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Sajjad Kitchloo tonight said he would stand by the victims of Kishtwar clashes and ensure that all possible help is extended to them.

"I do stand by the victims whose property was damaged and guarantee them all possible support from my side," Kitchloo said in a statement.

He alleged "some power-hungry politicians, who wanted to destabilise the state plotted against me and the elected state government. They engineered a discontent among people of Doda and the backward district of Kishtwar."

They tried to exploit the situation by whipping communal passions through very mean ways, he alleged. "It was a mere coincidence that I was in the district on the fateful day, August 9, and could defuse the crisis," he said, adding that timely action by the government prevented the situation from worsening.

Kitchloo said Kishtwar is a small place compared to Gujarat's Ahmadabad and Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar where communal clashes had claimed many lives. "...but parliamentarians of a party (referring to BJP) chose to rush to Jammu to have an on-spot assessment of the situation, which they had not done in other cases," he said. "It (the visit) was aimed at exploiting the sentiments of the innocent people of Kishtwar," he alleged. "Had I not been present (on the day), the number of killings in Kishtwar and our surroundings could have been very high," he claimed.

He appealed to the people of Kishtwar, as well as of the state, not to fall prey to the nefarious and mischievous elements.

Kitchloo also thanked Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for his re-induction in the Council of Ministers.