The following is a personal statement issued by Sajad Gani Lone, chairman of the J&K Peoples’ Conference, in response to an article in The Telegraph on November 20:

A reputed national daily on the 20th of November published an article titled “In custody in Kashmir: Slap, kick and rats” in which the author of this article has quoted unknown sources while narrating two incidents having taken place at Centaur Hotel Sub-Jail involving me. A local daily from Jammu has also carried a similar fictitious narration of these events.

I strongly deny the baseless claims of such incidents ever having taken place. Both incidents reported in the article concerning me are not only innuendo but also a deliberate attempt at full-scale character assassination under an elaborate plan.

I want to make it clear to my people that there is absolutely no question of me having contacted anyone in the national political or security establishment since I was taken to jail on the 5th of August.

In fact, for the first 25 days of my incarceration, I wasn’t even allowed to meet my own family and it was nearly a month’s period after my arrest that I met them for the first time. Also, when it came to my notice through credible reports in the sub-jail that the police intends to shift us outside the state on the 15th day of my incarceration, I had left clear instructions for my family to neither appeal nor press for my release under any circumstances.

I also wrote a note to my family in which I spoke of how some personal matters, like the school fees of my sons, needed to be dealt with in my absence and nobody in my family was supposed to approach anyone apart from the courts under any circumstances.

These “news items” and “articles” are deliberately fabricated and spread by a network of those who would go to any extent to cling on to power whether that be in the present political arrangement or in dispensations of the past.

These individuals and groups have always aimed to belittle and malign the genuine, democratically elected political leadership in the Valley and have now stooped to the level of spreading malicious and slanderous lies in an attempt to further undermine us. I would like to explicitly deny both incidents ever having taken place and would not only quit politics but also never set foot on the sacred land of Kashmir if I am proven wrong.

My father has spent nearly a decade in prison for his political beliefs and convictions. This is my third incarceration. I am the last person who can be cowed down by these tactics or by my continued imprisonment.

We expect prestigious and credible publications like the national daily in question to live up to their legacy of believing in and supporting the journalism of truth, integrity and honesty while upholding the morals and values the institution has come to be associated with.

I am particularly appalled at the editors of the publication, for recklessly and wilfully allowing publishing of such false and slanderous lies under the garb of independent journalism. I have, through my lawyers, sent a legal notice to the editors for allowing their publication to be used to spread slander and propaganda against me.

I have also asked my lawyers to file a defamation suit against the particular writer as also the local daily from Jammu.

My journey in politics has been one of unimaginable political and personal struggles against the odds of traditionalism and favouritism and I take pride in the fact that I have always upheld my ideological convictions. These tactics and attempts to malign me can’t and won’t deter me.

Sajad Gani Lone
Chairman
J&K Peoples’ Conference
(At present under detention at MLA Hostel, Srinagar)