Amid tussle over JKNPP’s control, party ‘chief’ targets founder’s son

Our Correspondent

Jammu, May 18

The war of words between Ankit Love, son of late Bhim Singh who founded the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP), and its “president” Vilakshan Singh continued a day after the former announced Vilakshan’s “expulsion” from the party and the latter questioned Ankit’s authority, claiming no one had elected him party’s patron.

Vilakshan today said the presence of Ankit during the G20 event in J&K could be damaging for the government as he had been “involved in anti-India protests in London” for which he was not allowed to visit India for his mother’s cremation.

Ankit was booked in February last year after he threw eggs towards the Indian High Commission in London during a protest. He recently apologised to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought his removal from the blacklist to travel to India for the cremation of his mother Jay Mala, who died on April 26.

Besides accusing Vilakshan of supporting the BJP and also terming him a fraudster, Ankit has also claimed that he has lodged a police complaint for a probe into his mother’s “murder”. “Days before she died, my mother had told me that there is a plot to assassinate her,” Ankit mentioned in a statement issued to mediapersons.

Vilakshan Singh, reiterating that he is still the party president, said the Central Government should cancel Ankit’s visa and deport him to the United Kingdom as he had been “misusing the visa”.

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