Urges Yashwant Sinha to visit Kashmir for an on spot assessment
Srinagar: Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister, Prof. Saifuddin Soz, has said that the killings and carnage at Shopian town has left entire people of Kashmir maimed.
“With the Supreme Court taking no notice of the miseries that the Kashmiris suffer due to the draconian laws like AFSPA, where is the hope around for Kashmiris? It is so tragic that democratic India’s civil society is watching the atrocities against Kashmiris helplessly,” Soz said in a statement.
Soz added that some concerned citizens of India are well aware about the situation in Kashmir, however they aren’t ‘unitedly coming forward.’
“Now, Kashmiris feel that the killings take place through a design. I reached out Yashwant Sinha team and urged them to visit Kashmir at the earliest to have an assessment on the spot,” he said.
“It must go to the credit of Yashwant Sinha, who after several visits to Kashmir suggested Modi Govt. that the Kashmir dispute can be resolved only through a decisive dialogue and not through bullets,” Soz said.
Last week, two militants and four civilians, who the army claimed were overground workers (OGWs) of militants were killed after the militants fired on a mobile vehicle check post (MVCP) of 54 Rashtriya Rifles.
However, the villagers refuted the army claim and said the four slain men were civilians.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday said that she was deeply distressed due to the civilian killings in Shopian. The chief minister tweeted her condolences to the families of the people who were ‘caught in cross fire’.
The various business communities of the valley also reacted to the killings. The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry in a statement said that the incident, probably is a ‘fake encounter’. While the Kashmir Economic Alliance called it a ‘strategic genocide’.
The Jammat-e-Islami in it’s statement said that the incident proves that the Indian Army is immune from every legal and moral accountability. The Joint Resistance leadership has called for ‘Shopian Chalo’ on March 7. They have also called for a complete shutdown too.
In their statement, the JRL said that the ‘Indian trigger happy forces and police are deployed to kill Kashmiris and pro-India politicians and political parties especially RSS backed Mehbooba regime is deployed to provide a legal cover to these killers.’
Earlier in the day talking to reporters in Jammu, the DPG while commenting on the return of a youth from militant ranks to his family, expressed hope that more women would make an appeal for their sons’ return.
“You have seen six bodies are lying (in Shopian). Taking up arms or joining terrorism only lead to loss of life and nothing can be achieved,” he said.
(With inputs from KNS)
