Srinagar: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Chairman of Hurriyat (M) on Friday said that the Army’s remarks that they had an ‘remarkable year’ after killing more than 250 militants is ‘extremely unfortunate and inhumane.’
Addressing people during his Friday sermon at the historic Jamia Masjid, Mirwaiz said that a ‘well trained army is patting their back for killing young boys and men, same as young as 14 year old.
At Jamia today,unfortunate that an ArmedForce skilled for warfare,is celebrating and patting its back on killing scarcely trained young men & boys,some as young as 14,while some budding intellectuals and academics,and calling it“remarkable”!These that they are boasting of killing pic.twitter.com/WHPAL6Qh2H
— Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (@MirwaizKashmir) January 18, 2019
are not some hard core armed gurellias and terror mongers, but sentiment driven youth forced to take to arms as a consequence of severe repression and failure of political means to express what is essentially a political demand for self-determination.
— Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (@MirwaizKashmir) January 18, 2019
Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, GoC-in-C Northern Command had said that 2018 was ‘remarkable’ for the armed forces as more than 250 militants were killed, 54 were arrested alive and four surrendered.
He said the pain and loss that all of Kashmir feels at the killings of militants only adds to people’s resolve and pushes more young to join in.
“Instead of admitting this, the armed force of a country that prides itself in the history of its freedom struggle by honoring the likes of Subhash Chander Bose who raised Indian National Army to fight the British colonial rule , sells the killing of these armed youth as a great achievement to people of India,” he said.
Reacting to Governor Satya Pal Malik’s statement that they want to kill militancy, not militants, Mirwaiz said:
While the incumbent Governor has said that Govt does not want to kill militants but militancy,if it is so and they are sincere then Govt should address the cause that is leading these educated young boys to take to arms,start a political process in Ernest to address the sentiment pic.twitter.com/tF7ClBu7PH
— Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (@MirwaizKashmir) January 18, 2019
behind it and resolve the dispute. It will not only save the lives of our youth but soldiers also,end militarisation and the resultant atrocities that governor sb wants leadership to convey to him, and end the uncertainty &hostility that the region is hostage to for past 71 yrs
— Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (@MirwaizKashmir) January 18, 2019