Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on Saturday said the attachment of Farooq Abdullah's properties by the Enforcement Directorate was "political vendetta" and an attempt to "silence the leadership and dissuade it from voicing support to political aspirations of the people".

The ED on Saturday attached residential and commercial properties worth nearly Rs 12 crore of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Abdullah in a case of alleged money laundering.

"The attachment of Abdullah's properties by ED is political vendetta, meant to settle political scores," senior party leaders, including two sitting MPs Mohammad Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi, said in a joint statement.

The leaders, who also included party general secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar and provincial presidents Nasir Aslam Wani and Devender Singh Rana and several former ministers, lambasted what they called "the series of attacks on the party leadership".

The leaders said such acts were nothing but "unwarranted and unjustified".

"There is no evidence worth the name on record to justify the order of attachment of the property. These ancestral assets had been acquired decades back, and there is no justification why there should be attached," the leaders said.

"It is nothing except political vendetta and an attempt to silence the leadership and dissuade it from voicing support to political aspirations of the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh," the NC leaders said.

They said the list of properties includes two ancestral properties in which Abdullah has a minor share. "It reveals the desperation of the BJP which is using its agencies to settle political scores."

The statement said the sudden move against Abdullah has been taken to "divert attention" from the fact that the BJP staring at loss in the District Development Council polls.

"It is not a coincidence that the BJP ordered this action on the day the District Development Council polls ended because they know how badly they have fared and are now extracting their revenge in advance of the drubbing they will receive at the hands of people of J&K," the leaders said in the statement.