Pak has to stop terror, will progress if it lives in atmosphere of friendship with India: Farooq Abd
Srinagar (PTI) National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Friday said Pakistan has to put a stop to terror activities and understand that it can progress only when it lives in an atmosphere of friendship and love with India.
The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister also said Kashmiri Pandits will not return to the valley until remnants of terror remain here.
"The government cannot bring anything. Until they (Pandits) feel in their hearts that they are safe here and can roam around freely, they will not come back," Abdullah told reporters on the sidelines of an event here.
The NC president said the government as well as the people here will have to create a conducive atmosphere in Jammu and Kashmir for Pandits to return.
"We have to create those conditions and that cannot happen through speeches, but by action. If we really want to bring them back, we have to start acting in that way. We also need to tell our neighbour (Pakistan) to stop terror now. Enough is enough.
"We cannot become theirs (Pakistan), but we can live as friends. Till there are remnants of terror, there will be fear and this (the return of Pandits) will not happen," he said.
Replying to a question that whether targeted killings of Hindus in the recent past were a hurdle for Pandits to return to Kashmir, Abdullah said such killings will take place till Pakistan realises that it has to live as friends with India.
"When we live as friends and with love, both countries will progress and if we live in hatred, the pace of progress will be slow, which we are seeing today," he asserted.
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Count of voters in Gujarat drops by 73.73 lakh to 4.34 crore post-SIR
Ahmedabad (PTI): The names of nearly 74 lakh voters have been dropped from Gujarat's draft electoral rolls after the completion of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, pegging the total count of electors at 4.34 crore as against the 5.08 crore earlier, an official said on Friday.
The draft electoral rolls were published here by the Election Commission on Friday.
A total of 73.73 lakh voters were omitted from the electoral rolls after the exercise initiated by the EC to clean the rolls, state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Hareet Shukla said.
"Before the publication of the draft electoral rolls, a total of 5,08,43,436 voters were registered in the state. After the publication of these rolls, the number of voters is now 4,34,70,109," he said.
"During the SIR campaign, the names of a total of 73,73,327 voters have been removed from the draft electoral roll," Shukla said.
The names of voters in following categories were deleted in the draft electoral rolls -- deceased voters (18,07,278), absent voters (9,69,662), voters who have permanently migrated (40,25,553), voters registered in two places (3,81,470) and others (1,89,364), a release from CEO office said.
The SIR exercise began in Gujarat on November 4 and ended on December 14.
After the publication of draft rolls, objections and claims regarding them can be submitted to authorities till January 18, the EC earlier said.
