Sack Jammu and Kashmir Governor: Sankaracharya

Guwahati, Aug 04 (UNI) Puri Sankaracharya Swami Adhokssjananda Devtirth today demanded the sacking of Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra to uphold the Constitution as well as prevent flaring up of communal tension.

The Seer, who is visiting North East these days, told newsmen that the governor had allegedly been appointed with some design and he was implementing these to turn a peaceful region into a troubled one.

The Sankaracharya said the governor was ''still acting as an intelligence man and it has not dawned upon him that he is a constitutional head''.

The Seer further alleged that Mr Vohra was instigating the people, allowing the security forces to take the law upon themselves.

''I have information that they are planning to arrest some 15 senior journalists also. Reporters of many national and local channels had been removed from the Jammu region,'' he said.

He further demanded an investigation into the governors role.

''I have serious doubt that he is working under a design,'' he insisted.

On the disputed land transfer issue, he asserted that the land should be handed over to the Amarnath Shrine Board. ''But that can be achieved through a cool head and dialogue between people of Kashmir valley and Jammu. Kashmiris have also realised that. But instead of promoting dialogue, the situation is being provoked,'' he remarked.

''The biggest irony is that Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has no political maturity. He should not have allowed the situation to come to such a pass. Today the anti-social elements are spreading rumour and I fear that communal tension may flare up in this highly sensitive zone,'' he said.

The bone of contention is a piece of land. On May 26 the Jammu and Kashmir Government allotted 40 hectares of forest land in north Kashmir to the Amarnath Shrine Board for creating ''temporary and pre-fabricated'' shelters for Hindu pilgrims on their way to the Amaranth cave temple.

But the order was revoked on July one following violent protests in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley, in which six people were killed. The protesters alleged that the land would be used to settle outsiders and change the Muslim-majority character of the valley.

The revocation order silenced the protests in Kashmir but ignited demonstrations in the Hindu-majority Jammu region, which has been reeling under curfews, shutdowns and violent protests for the past one month.

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