New Delhi: Peeved over the Centre's silence on acquittal in the Best Bakery communal riots case in Gujarat, National Conference (NC) is likely to sever its ties with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), party sources said.

The NC has already pulled out of the government, though it continues in the ruling alliance.

The sources said pressure was building up on the party chief Omar Abdullah to end its ties with the BJP- led NDA, as the silence of the government over the Best Bakery case was being viewed by the party's rank and file as "murder of democracy and judicial system".

The sources said the working committee of the party was likely to meet later in July, in which the party was likely to finally pull out of NDA.

Neither Omar nor the party's chief patron and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah was available for comments on the issue.

Accusing the BJP-led NDA of adopting "double standards", the sources asked why those responsible for Best Bakery carnage were not booked under Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), as was done in the case of those arrested for the Godhra incident.

Similar views were echoed by Omar at a seminar last weekend.

NC sources said that the "deafening silence" of the Centre over the acquital of all the accused in the Best Bakery carnage showed the true colour of the BJP-led NDA. It was surprising that no other NDA ally had expressed concern over it.

The strain between National Conference and the NDA heightened after the party refused to send its representative to an alliance meeting over the issue of sending troops to Iraq in June.

PTI