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Main opposition party to boycott assembly session in Indian-controlled Kashmir

Xinhua, October 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

in opposition party to boycott assembly session in Indian-controlled Kashmir

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) - - Main opposition party, the pro-India National Conference in Indian- controlled Kashmir Tuesday said it will boycott the ongoing Assembly session from Wednesday.

The announcement was made after its four lawmakers were suspended from the lawmaking body.

The region's lawmaking body, which is currently in session Tuesday witnessed uproar for the third consecutive day as the opposition Congress and National Conference legislators confronted the government over several issues including the controversial beef ban, failure of government in rehabilitating flood victims and discussion on a law that is relevant to Article 370, which provides special status to region within Indian constitution.

Kavinder Gupta, speaker of the lower house of lawmaking body suspended two NC legislators for their unruly behaviour, while as chairman of the upper house suspended the other two legislators of the party on similar grounds.

"We will boycott the rest of the (ongoing Assembly) session" Abdullah told reporters soon after walking out from the lawmaking body. "It was unfortunate that Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed did not intervene during the uproar in the Assembly over beef ban and rehabilitation of the flood victims. Government is not serious to tackle the major issues concerning the state. If it was serious, the Chief Minister would have stood up and intervened. "

India's top court on Monday suspended the order of Indian- controlled Kashmir's high court banning the sale of beef in the region for two months.

The top court's order has come in wake of two different directions of the Indian-controlled Kashmir high court pertaining to slaughter of the bovines and enforcement of ban on sale of beef.

The Jammu bench of the court had last month directed the police to enforce the sale of beef ban, while as a week later, the court' s Srinagar bench issued notice to the local government on a separate petition that asked for the ban to be cancelled.

The region's lawmaking body Monday witnessed noisy protests over the beef ban, with opposition benches including pro-India National Conference members calling the ban an "interference in religion" and demanding an adjournment motion on the issue.

Abdullah said efforts were being made to "disempower" the lawmaking body.

"The Speaker is hiding behind the Supreme Court and this House is being disempowered. The Speaker has to function like a Speaker not as a party member," he added.

A coalition of pro-India Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and right-wing Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janta Party runs local government in the restive region. Endi