In the wake of ongoing unrest in Kashmir, Peoples Conference leader and cabinet minister Sajad Gani Lone has finally shifted from his private residence at Sanat Nagar here to a “more secure government accommodation”.
Sources said the separatist-turned-mainstream politician, who had earlier declined to shift to government accommodation offered to him finally gave a second thought to his decision, in the wake of protests outside his residence on the highway.
The sources said some miscreants pelted stones at Sajad’s house at midnight following which, he got intelligence inputs that “it will not be wise on his part to continue putting up at his private residence.”
Official sources said the very next morning Sajad shifted to a “more secured accommodation” on the fashionable Gupkar which houses villas of the most of the ministers and other high profile people in the government.
Sources said it was for the first time since Sajad Lone joined mainstream politics around a decade back that protests were reported from outside his residence, forcing him for “migration.”
He is understood to have been asked to stay away from his Sanat Nagar residence till the situation improves in Kashmir. The Valley has been on the edge since July 8 when Commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani was killed by security forces, triggering major street protests which have left over 49 persons dead and more than 3000 wounded.
Sajjad, the younger son of People’s Conference founder Abdul Gani Lone who was assassinated in 2002 was sworn in as a minister for a second time in the PDP-BJP government on April 4, 2016.
He parted ways with his brother and separatist leader Bilal Gani Lone in February 2004 to float his own faction of People’s Conference founded by his father.
The healthy turnout in the 2008 Assembly polls brought a change of mind in Sajad Lone, who called on the separatists to review their strategy for being heard in Delhi. He subsequently joined the mainstream.
He made electoral debut in April 2009 and contested as an independent candidate from Baramulla Lok Sabha seat but lost. Presently backed by BJP in the ruling coalition, Sajad Lone terms Prime Minister Modi a “Badha Bhai.”
