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Monday, Jul 10, 2006

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National

Yet another attempt on Sakina Ittoo

Shujaat Bukhari

The National Conference leader survives eleventh assassination bid

Srinagar: Sakina Ittoo, a 36-year-old National Conference (NC) leader, survived an eleventh assassination bid on Saturday when militants attacked her in a south Kashmir village. However, not one to be bogged down, she is determined to continue in politics.

She has demanded a high-level probe into the gruesome attack, which killed five people, including a former NC MLA Ghulam Nabi Dar, and injured 41 others, including Sakina.

Sakina is among the few mainstream women politicians in Kashmir who took up the challenge of joining politics at the peak of militancy. Unlike another top mainstream politician, Mehbooba Mufti, who heads the People's Democratic Party, Sakina's tryst with politics followed a tragedy in her home, when militants gunned down her father Wali Mohammad Ittoo in 1994. Mr. Ittoo was a former Assembly Speaker and a senior NC leader.

A green horn in politics, Ms. Ittoo quit her medical studies mid-way and managed a maiden victory from her father's constituency, Noorabad in the 1996 Assembly polls.

She became the only woman Minister in the Farooq Abdullah-led Government and was given the rank of Deputy Minister. She was elevated as Minister of State.

Target of militants

However, she lost the Assembly election in 2002 to PDP's Abdul Aziz Zargar, the Agriculture Minister in the present coalition government.

But, Sakina has remained a target of militants for the past several years. In 2001, her uncle Abdur Razzaq was gunned down during her stint as a Minister. While campaigning in 2002, she again survived a number of attacks.

Charges opponents

Recovering at the Soura Medical Institute, she is still in shock. "But, I will continue to serve my people as long as God wishes so," she said. Recalling her trauma, she said: "Every time, it has been a close shave." She charged her political opponents with "masterminding these attacks."

Several NC leaders blamed the PDP for Saturday's attack.

But, PDP president Ms. Mufti was among the first to inquire about her health at the hospital.

A PDP spokesman termed the NC's charges as "highly irresponsible."

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