Srinagar: Strongly denouncing the ‘cowardly and inhuman’ act of the Indian forces in Kashmir, Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Thursday said that the repressive policies of government of India (GoI) backed by their “local collaborators” were increasing by the day.
“GoI having declared Kashmir ‘a war zone’, absolute power had been given to the armed forces to deal with the civilian population as they will result in increase in killings and severe injuries and other grave human rights abuses at the hands of forces and the police,” said a statement issued by the Hurriyat Conference amalgam after it held a joint meeting of its Executive Committee, General Council and Working Committee Members today at the party’s Rajbagh headquarters.
The meeting was presided over by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and attended by the Executive Members including Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Gani Lone, Masroor Abbas Ansari, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza and Musadiq Adil besides the members of General Council and Working Committee, the statement informed.
The Hurriyat Conference (M) leadership took stock of the prevailing ‘critical’ situation in the valley especially the continuous killing of young Kashmiri boys at the hands of Indian forces in which yet another boy a 19-year-old BA 1st year student Adil Farooq Magray of Shopian was shot dead.
The statement while referring to the student agitation across valley for the past two months against such severe repression and for resolution of the political dispute, “is again met with use of force causing injuries to students or is dealt by shutting down the educational institutions, which is quiet ironic as the state and central rulers were very ‘concerned’ about the education of Kashmiris last year during the summer uprising”.
Simultaneously, the Hurriyat Conference (M) leaders said, “a witch hunt has been launched by the GoI against resistance activists, aides and traders by conducting illegal and forcible raids on their homes to intimidate and malign them and in turn weaken the freedom movement and demoralize the people.”
A raid in this connection was also conducted on the house of Media Advisor APHC-M, Shahid ul Islam, who continues to be under house arrest, where the bank loan papers of his house and car and his family members’ cell phones were taken away, an action which the meeting strongly condemned while demanding an immediate end of his house detention.
“A viscous propaganda campaign has also been launched by a section of unscrupulous Indian electronic media working at the behest of Indian state and its agencies and being funded by them to demonize and malign the people and the leadership and to mislead the people of India and raise hyper-nationalist passion in them by distorting and obfuscating the facts of Kashmir,” the statement said.
The meeting reiterated that all these “devious ploys and repressive policies” being experimented upon in Kashmir will in no way alter the status of the conflict in Kashmir and the dispute over it.
“APHC-M once again asks the GoI to accept the reality on ground in Kashmir and initiate a process of conflict resolution either by granting the people the right to self determination as promised by Indian leadership and ratified by UN resolutions or by engaging in a process of time bound and result oriented dialogue and deliberations with the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the Government of Pakistan towards a resolution that represents the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” the statement said.
The Hurriyat Conference (M) reiterated the call for strike and peaceful protests on Friday as given by the joint resistance leadership and said, “APHC-M will continue to strive for the peoples fundamental right, the right to decide their destiny as per their will and aspirations.”
