Srinagar: Joint Resistance Leadership on Saturday said it was ready to face every hardship and there’s no question of buckling under pressure to move away from the path of seeking justice and resolution of the ‘Kashmir dispute’ in accordance with the people’s aspirations and wishes of the people.
In a statement issued here, the JRL strongly condemned the arrest of Mohammad Yasin Malik, placing of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq under house arrest and continued detention of Syed Ali Geelani. The JRL also condemned sealing of all roads to their residences, imposition of ‘curfew and strict restrictions’ in parts of Srinagar by the authorities, to disallow the leadership from going to New Delhi against what they called persecution and intimidation of the people from all walks of life and the leadership by the government through the NIA.
The JRL has called announced to court arrest at headquarters of NIA to put an end to “harassment”. “This move completely exposes the so called investigation and its actual purpose,” the JRL said and asked that if they themselves volunteered to go to New Delhi, “let the investigating agency arrest them and ask them regarding the charges levelled against their organizations and the people’s political movement”.
“Why were we barred? Especially, when the Government yesterday (Friday) made tall claims of everyone being free to go anywhere, and released Mirwaiz from house arrest and Yasin Malik from jail.”
They said that stopping the resistance leadership from courting arrest, giving ‘contradictory’ statements and creating a law and order ‘bogey’ have exposed the government and their bluff.
They said NIA should put an immediate end to this harassment
“It becomes quite evident that along with brute military force, the Indian state is deploying all its institutions to crush our movement. For the past three months repeated raids, notices and arrests by the NIA—an unaccountable machinery unleashed upon Kashmiris from different segments of society including political activists, our relatives and associates , lawyers, businessmen, journalists, students and others is being carried out to intimidate and instil fear among the masses while simultaneously an all out vicious and venomous propaganda campaign to defame and malign leadership and the peoples political struggle is being aggressively pursued by electronic print and social media,” they said, adding “Lies and falsehoods about us and the peoples political struggle are being promoted and spread. Our just and legitimate indigenous political movement for which people have given extreme sacrifices is branded as sponsored and linked to terrorism and monetary benefits. We, our activists and those associated with the movement are abused, vilified and accused of being associated with the sacred movement for monetary gains.”
All this is being done under a ploy to change the narrative on the Kashmir dispute, demoralize and disillusion the people regarding their internationally recognized and legitimate political struggle, they said.
“Let it be known to all that leadership is ready to face every hardship for the sake of the sacred peoples movement, but there is no question that we can be pressurized to move away from the path of seeking justice and resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the people’s aspirations and wishes.”
They also strongly condemned the house arrest of human rights activist SAR Geelani by Delhi police, who according to police was presumably coming to the airport to receive them.
The JRL reiterated the strike call for Sundaes in keeping with the Indian Home minister’s visit and appealed people to stay resolute and steadfast.
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