Not a setback for DPAP: Azad on his party leaders rejoining Congress

Srinagar: The leaders from Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) returning to the Congress fold was not a setback for the newly formed party, its chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Friday, and wished his old colleagues well.

Seventeen leaders of the DPAP, including ex-deputy chief minister Tara Chand and ex-PCC chief Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, on Friday rejoined the Congress in New Delhi.

“It is not a setback because all three of them have no constituency. I wish them well, I will not say anything against them as they have been my old colleagues,” Azad told reporters here.

He was referring to Chand, Sayeed and Thakur Balwan Singh.

Azad said when the delimitation took place, these leaders were left without their constituencies as some assembly constituencies were reserved by the commission.

“I had given them positions (in the party) as they were my old colleagues and they could not have contested elections. But, they could not digest that. It is okay. Perhaps where they went, they do not know that these three only had party positions, but have no constituencies,” he said.

Asked how he sees that the killings in Rajouri by militants were being given a "communal angle", Azad said the killings of non-Muslims in J-K has also caused suffering to the Muslims.

“The militants have always tried this. It is not something new and has been happening for the last 25 years whenever massacres of Sikhs or Kashmiri Pandits took place… This has been Pakistan’s policy, it is regrettable and it causes a lot of sufferings to the Muslims of Kashmir.

“Perhaps the killers have no idea that Kashmiri Muslims have to bear the maximum brunt of the killing of any non-Muslim here. Lakhs of our boys and girls from Kashmir are studying across India. The killings have an impact on them in one way or the other,” Azad said.